The team met with several local and national support organisations to try and maximise the support Trafalgar can offer to its tenants but felt the need to do more.

“We believed that we needed to do something for all of our tenants, both who work and those in receipt of benefits or pensions,” said secretary Nicola Lyden. “We made our application to the Scottish Government’s Winter Hardship Fund (administered by the SFHA) so we could provide a one-off payment to each and every single tenant of Trafalgar.”

Trafalgar was successful with its application and received the maximum award from the fund. After discussing with its management committee, it was agreed that Trafalgar would top up this fund so it could offer all of its tenants a payment directly into their bank accounts of £100.00.

Housing manager Chris Chalk said: “We chose to use the full award amount to be given to our tenants. Part of the funding can be used to cover admin fees for external organisations to process the whole thing but we quickly had staff giving up their time and services so we could use the full award for our amazing tenants.”

He added: “Since making contact with our tenants we have been overwhelmed with messages of thanks and praise as this financial support will make a massive difference to people’s lives. It has also given us a great opportunity to engage with all of our tenants to make sure they are doing ok and offering support where we can and signposting tenants to various local support agencies to assist them further.

“I personally, am so grateful to the Scottish Government for this funding as it is directly making a positive effect on the lives of all of our tenants and reinforcing that Trafalgar Housing Association is more than a landlord, we are a community-based anchor organisation who makes real positive differences for our tenants and their communities.”