At the start of the pandemic we read an article in the local press about a surgeon who was given notice by the Landlord to leave their rented accommodation at short notice, and wondered if we would be able to help others who had found themselves in this situation.
One of our Property Managers was discussing the article with a friend, who works at an Oxford hospital. She mentioned that she knew of a colleague who had been living in a hotel as a family member was considered high risk. We learnt that her time at the hotel was coming to an end.
Our Property Managers checked our portfolio and highlighted two apartments that we thought would be suitable to help. We felt it important that the properties had an equal ratio of bedrooms to bathrooms and dedicated car parking spaces. The properties were vacant, had been professionally cleaned throughout, were furnished and semi-equipped.
We contacted the key worker who was living in the hotel and offered her one of the apartments, along with another colleague. The initiative worked brilliantly, and we ended up having 4 NHS staff members, all in very similar situations, living in the two apartments as guests for 2 months.
All the staff at Lucy Properties feel very proud to have been able to help these amazing, brave, and resilient individuals. We have started to look for other ways we can make small gestures of our appreciation to the NHS.
