Case study 1 - R.

Background
R arrived in London from the Dominic Republic 4 years ago. She is partially blind and is unable to communicate in English. R lives in a social housing flat that has an intermittent boiler and two of her radiators fell off the walls over nine months ago; creating a trip hazard. She had tried to request help from the social housing office on numerous occasions, but was not able to communicate with them.

R met Katherin, our energy café manager, at one of CREW's Spanish workshops at the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organization (IRMO), a community centre for the Latin American community in Brixton.

How we helped
With the support of South East London Community Energy, Katherin visited R in her home to assess her energy and support needs, called the social housing office and was able to request an engineer for the following week. They came to R's house and fixed the boiler and the radiators back onto the wall.
 
In addition, during the home visit, we:

• Helped R switch to a cheaper energy supplier
• Added for the Priority Register Service and she will apply for the Warm Home Discount when the scheme reopens this winter
• Applied for the Water Sure Plus scheme
• Installed two radiator reflectors and Thames Water Freebies

Outcomes and benefits

• By switching to Avro Energy, R will save £275 a year
• Warm home discount will save her £140 on her electricity bills in 2021
• Water Sure Plus will reduce her water bill by 50%
• Thames Water freebies will save her around £90 a year on her water bill

‘I feel grateful that you have made my problems yours and helped me solved an issue that I wasn’t able to do by myself.’