An Open Letter to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing recently scolded me on Twitter for trying to interact with them. I replied to each of their scolding tweets (there were four), and this is what they tweeted to me in return:




You can view the whole exchange on Twitter.


This is my open letter reply:

Dear RBH,

You're so committed to meeting my needs that I've been waiting for over 18 months for you to meet my needs. You're so committed that I've had to take a complaint about you not providing me with the reasonable adjustments I need to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS).

You’re so committed that you took 7 weeks to reply to the HOS, and you only replied after I called you out on Twitter for not having replied. You’re so committed to meeting my needs that you won’t deal with me as an individual any more, even though you did previously.

You’ve also inferred on Twitter that my interactions are so numerous that I am harassing you, and that it will cause detriment to other tenants if you try to reply to me. I haven’t contacted you using any other methods during this time, and you’re hardly rushed off your feet on Twitter.

You won’t even tell me who I’m talking to on Twitter. Your staff shamelessly hide behind a corporate moniker whilst claiming to uphold RBH’s mutual values of openness and honesty. Who is responsible for replies on Twitter? How are these staff members held accountable?

When I have asked other organisations to provide me with reasonable adjustments, those other organisations have provided the reasonable adjustments I need. You, however, seem intent on delaying things and continually making other suggestions instead.

Even now, in your reply to the HOS, you are suggesting things that are not the reasonable adjustments I need. You are the only organisation I have ever dealt with that has behaved like this. It feels like you don’t want to provide the reasonable adjustments I need on principle, simply because I have asked for them.

Your replies on Twitter are just like everything else you’ve said to me for the past 18 months; empty public-relations nonsense. There is no sincerity. It’s just the words you know you need to say to make yourselves look good in front of the people you deem to be important housing peers. Everything you say is a press release. I might as well be talking to a bot.

You constantly claim that you want to work with me. You constantly claim that you want me to be engaged. Then you completely ignore me; not even a perfunctory acknowledgement to some previous emails; no contact from you at all about the last event you held; no video for me of the models; no token gesture replies on Twitter. You then scold me publicly on Twitter for ‘engaging with you too much’.

You want to demolish my home. A home that is compatible with my autism. I am going to lose everything I have; my home and environment of 20 years; neighbours and relationships built over 20 years; my safe space, my secure sanctuary, where I can exist peacefully without some of the pressures my autism places upon me.

You have no idea just how horrifying the thought of losing this is for someone with autism. You have no idea how hard I have worked to create somewhere I am able to function day-to-day within the boundaries of my autism; somewhere that I can actually live a life.

You have no idea how hard it is for someone with autism to build relationships and how precious these long term relationships are. You have no idea of the level of trauma you are inflicting and the distress you are causing with your regeneration plans.

You have tried to evict me before. The impact upon me was that I was almost forcibly sectioned for being a danger to myself. Now it is happening again and you won’t guarantee that you will meet my housing needs and provide me with a home and environment that is compatible with my autism.

So, this time, I am going to talk about it, in writing, whenever and wherever I like.

I know you despise dealing with me. I know what staff think of me; I’ve seen internal emails and the way I am spoken about. Do you think I like dealing with you? Dealing with people who belittle and berate me? Do you think this is easy for me, knowing what you say about me and how you view me?

The fact is, you want to demolish my home. I am going to have to talk to you about it, and you are going to have to talk to me about it. This will have to happen in writing. So I suggest you suck it up, and get on with it. If you are doing nothing wrong, then you should have no problems talking to me about any of your regeneration plans right here, in public.

Losing my home is terrifying to me.

It affects my mental health. I’m having difficulty sleeping and I’m having night terrors again, like I did when you tried to evict me before. I’ve had to have my medications increased. I’ve had to find specialist counselling services for myself to receive any help and support. My blood pressure is being monitored and I'm suffering crippling headaches.

It affects everything in my life; the stress and anxiety impact negatively upon my ability to manage myself and my autism. Day-to-day life becomes more difficult across the board.

This could go on for 7 years.

I am not ashamed of my autism. I am not ashamed of the impact the regeneration, and the way I’m being treated by you, is having upon me and my health. I will not be silenced.

You, however, do appear to be ashamed of what you are doing to people during this regeneration because you won’t give a straight, open and honest answer, to anything.

You are a Charitable Community Benefit Society. You claim you exist to provide housing for the most vulnerable residents in the Rochdale community. It is part of your “Purpose and objects”.

I am one of the people you are supposed to help and protect. I need a home and environment that is compatible with my autism. I need this to be able to function day-to-day. I have this now and you want to take it away from me. You won’t promise to replace it.

You are completely destroying people’s lives and you don’t care. You jolly well should be ashamed of yourselves.

V. Haigh.