NEWS that a £10,000 grant from West Devon Borough Council has been axed is forcing Housing Aid West Devon to seek funding elsewhere.

'They haven't really been very caring in their approach to the work that we are doing,' said HAWD chairman Mrs Marion Lake.

'They have dealt us a blow that will make it very difficult for us to survive. We are expected to do more and more with less and less but we will keep fighting as long as the money lasts.'

She said originally the organisation believed their grant would be slashed by half — but it was then cut completely.

The independent housing advice organisation based at Kingdon House, Tavistock, offers help to those seeking housing, and those providing it.

'We were supplying a service for West Devon Borough Council to give advice to the non-statutory homeless which will now have to be done elsewhere because it is a legal obligation,' said Mrs Lake.

West Devon Borough Council's housing services manager Alison Morgan said the council had to 'make some difficult decisions' in its budget setting process for the next financial year.

'Our members considered all the facts alongside other budget requests and unfortunately had to come to a decision to withdraw funding for HAWD,' said Miss Morgan.

Company secretary Jill Lane said HAWD would be applying for a lottery grant. Also their project worker Cath Parker would be seeking funding from other sources such as trusts and housing associations.

'We were set up to help the homeless find good quality rented accommodation — but in this area rented accommodation is pretty expensive,' said Mrs Lane.

'Under-25s have problems because of the cuts in housing benefit. It means they can only afford so-called single room rent with shared facilities. And there is little of that in the Tavistock area.'

In 1998/99 a total of 118 clients were interviewed. Out of them 110 were seeking accommodation.

HAWD was successful in housing only 19 because of the difficulty of persuading landlords to take people on housing benefit.

'We are trying to prevent homelessness. Landlords are specially cautious of people on housing benefit.'

HAWD is planning to set up a rent deposit guarantee scheme for West Devon. It is also thinking of going to schools and other organisations to explain more about the problems of homelessness and how to deal with it.

Mrs Lane said they had the Tavistock Homeless Trust which gives rent deposits to people who have the right criteria. This is handed to the landlords as a deposit and paid back to the trust by instalments.

'But because we have found a lot of people who do not meet the local need criterion we are exploring the rent deposit guarantee scheme. This helps to bring the landlord on board because we guarantee that if the client leaves the accommodation without due notice the landlord's losses will be covered,' she said.

Mrs Lane said homelessness was a largely hidden problem in rural areas.

'People are living in other people's homes. You need a job, transport and a home — it is a vicious circle.'

Since 1998 HAWD has embraced not just the Tavistock area but the whole of West Devon. Mrs Lane said the situation was very different at the opposite end of their area with more accommodation available in Okehampton.

'There are different difficulties — but the needs are just the same, they just need different approaches,' said Mrs Lane.

The annual meeting takes place on Thursday, March 23 at 7pm at Kingdon House, Pym Street, Tavistock. HAWD seeks more volunteers. Anyone wanting to find out more is welcome to attend the meeting.