Rush Of Applications For Old People’s Home

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31926, 1 March 1969, Page 14

Rush Of Applications For Old People’s Home

With the opening of the Fairhaven Home for the Ageing still at least six months away, more than 80 applications had been received for the 40 beds—and further inquiries were still coming in, said the superintendent of the Christchurch Methodist Central Mission (the Rev. W. E. Falkingham) when its board of managers met on Thursday evening. “We shall need a responsible committee to look at every application on its merits and judge the extent of the need,” Mr Falkingham said. “The trouble is that everybody who applies thinks his or her case is the most urgent,” he said. “There will be a lot of heart-burning when the final decisions are announced, but what can we do, beyond be fair? “Some elderly folk who have given us the money to furnish a room in the home are convinced that this will ensure they are accepted. It’s very difficult to make it clear to them that we don’t allot rooms on this basis. The committee’s decisions, said Mr Falkingham, would be based instead on such matters as whether the applicant

bad home help available, what the housing situation was, and a medical report. The Fairhaven home, in Harewood Road, Papanui, was expected to be occupied in September, Mr Falkingham said. At the present rate at which money was coming in, a small deficit would remain at the opening.