AN 83-year-old Falls resident has thanked a tenants' support group in her battle to have handrails installed at her home.
For five months Rosetta Connolly from Ross Road – along with support from the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) – has been trying to have the handrails fitted at her home to help her climb her stairs.
VICTORY: Rosetta can now use a handrail to get up her stairs
Without the handrails Rosetta had been forced to crawl on her hands and knees to access the top of her home and was forced to sleep on her sofa in her living room at night.
Conal Mac Mathúna from CATU said: "On Friday we accompanied our member 83-year-old Rosetta, to the Housing Executive and refused to leave until they conducted the essential maintenance/repairs Rosetta has been waiting over five months for.
"After speaking to a manager and acknowledging our letter of demands we were told this essential work would be carried out first thing on Monday morning.
"After visiting Rosetta on Monday morning we can confirm this work has begun and Rosetta is over the moon with finally having these problems resolved."
Our 83 year old member has been waiting since May to have a modern handrail fitted by NIHE. Unable to get upstairs other than by crawling, she is often forced to sleep on her sofa.
— CATU Belfast (@catubelfast) October 17, 2023
CATU has demanded that this, and other vital repairs to her leaking roof, be made immediately. pic.twitter.com/GPDFVpwcgW
Speaking about the repairs Rosetta said handrails had also been fitted and through CATU had made contact with occupational therapy to see if there were any other non-housing related adjustments she could avail of.
Rosetta said: “If it wasn’t for CATU, I don’t know what I would have done.”
