Housing for elderly Vietnamese war refugees faces end of funding
A housing scheme that supports elderly Vietnamese people who fled their homes after the Vietnam War is facing closure.
An Lac House in Coldhams Lane currently receives £42,000 a year from Cambridgeshire County Council, but the authority is proposing to slash this to zero.
Trustees of the Abbeyfield Cambridge Vietnamese Society say without funding it will close.
Many of its residents originally came to the UK as boat people, who fled their country by sea following the collapse of the South Vietnamese government in 1975.
Founding trustee Jenny Greene said: “Cambridge was one of the cities in the country that took boat people in, so there was quite a Vietnamese community here.
“Many of them were very fragile and had gone through terrible experiences, so they were mentally quite fragile.”
An Lac House, which is owned by Cambridge Housing Society, was opened in 1996 by Prince Charles as a culturally unique service to meet the needs of the older Vietnamese community.
It was recognised that the range of needs of the elder Vietnamese could not be met in any other provision and would have a detrimental effect on their emotional and physical wellbeing.
“It’s been working ever since,” said Jenny. She added: “We were told that our £42,000 a year grant would be cut completely and since then we’ve been working really hard to make savings and restructure, but we can’t manage with nothing. You can’t just run things on volunteers.
“People get frailer and frailer and this is their home, it’s not right for them to have to move to a nursing home.”
An Lac House, which was built using city council fundings, promotes Vietnamese customs, norms, cultural events, food, religion and language. Central to the communal area there is a Buddhist shrine room.
The staff at An Lac House provide frequent interpretation with families, care agencies, medical staff, GP, emergency services, care agencies, city council benefits and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Trustees argue that the funding, which is used to pay for 1.5 full-time members of staff, is considerably less than the cost of caring for the residents in a nursing home.
Currently £4,200 is spent on each resident which compares to £104,520 per annum in residential care and £152,880 in nursing care.
Trustees are also seeking an increase in the number of units to bring the cost down even further.
Trustee Mai Ward, one of the boat people refugees and one of the founders of An Lac House, said: “This place is very dear to us, the Cambridge Vietnamese community, and also the whole of the UK.
“This is not a private home, it’s a charity. We don’t charge a lot of money to the residents. We don’t make a surplus, but just enough money to survive.”
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire County Council said: “All proposals regarding Housing Related Support will now go to the relevant committees in May with decisions being made by councillors at that time. No decision regarding the future funding for An Lac House has been made. Discussions are ongoing with the provider.”
A petition has been launched in support of An Lac House. It can be signed at overmillroadbridge.org.uk.
