Donna Young
Benbecula born and raised Donna Young has experienced Uist’s housing crisis from all fronts. Having been at the receiving end of the current housing headache, she has become active in the accommodation fight for the benefit of others. Donna has kept firmly with her beliefs and morals while buying and selling previously, and she now continues to fight for the cause through her work with Rural Housing Scotland.
Donna left Uist in 2004 after her time in Sgoil Lionacleit. Since that day, life has taken her on quite the tropical journey. Donna’s been far away, and is back home again, with her passport taking her as far as Doha. While living in Qatar with her young family, she and her husband Gary made the decision to return back to their native land in November 2020 and came home. ‘Home’ home!
Finding somewhere to live in Uist was not quite the walk on the croft that one would expect. While trying to buy, Donna and Garys’ offers were rejected for the higher offer. Bid after bid, life in Uist for the Young local family didn’t seem possible. With would-be family homes being sold to owners of second houses and to the Airbnb market, this situation continues to be very difficult and disheartening for young people, first-time buyers and locals.
“I don’t even know the number of houses we tried. It was way past 20 anyway. These were all different houses and some that we contacted to see if we could even rent at the time. It’s quite off-putting trying to come home with a small family when you can’t find somewhere to live. We wouldn’t have qualified for social housing at the time because I didn’t have a key worker’s job, so we would either have to move in with my mum and dad or not come home at all.
Luckily someone that my parents knew was willing to let us live in their house for a few months and then we bought the only house on the market, which was in Balivanich. We bought it and renovated it in about four weeks.”
As was the case for all around the globe, lockdown wasn’t easy in Doha. The strict rules of being trapped at home in 40+ degree heat with security guards monitoring your movements were quite different to the Benbecula freedom of being able to escape to the beach and walk around the hill. This freedom was part of the deciding factor for Donna, Gary and their two boys to move back.
“I think that talking to Mum and Dad almost every night on facetime changed things. They were out walking on the beach and had that freedom to go out, and I was just so jealous of it. So we decided to move back. We weren’t sure where we would go. I didn’t want to go to Glasgow or Edinburgh… so we thought, let’s come ‘home’.”
“That was November when I traveled on my own with two kids, two cats and a whole lot of luggage. We made it from Doha to Edinburgh to Glasgow and finally to Benbecula, where we were home. ‘Home’ home.”
Although having bought and renovated a house in Balivanich, it was a bit cramped for Donna, Gary and the boys, who were still on the lookout for their permanent Uist home. Eventually, Donna took the situation into her own hands and decided to add a personal touch to the process. A new Grimsay home entered the market and she decided to contact the owner and with her family’s story. Luckily, Donna’s plea resonated with the house seller and the Young’s bid was accepted.
“I cried when the estate agent phoned and said that we got the place, because I didn’t expect it at all. We had looked and looked at so many houses and when we got this one we were just so blown away that we managed to get this amazing house.”
Donna is currently working for Rural Housing Scotland, who hope to combat the issues which she faced for others in Uist.
“At the moment there is an accommodation gap in Uist. There’s social housing, very little private rentals and then there’s the open market. With the way that the open market is going just now, houses are going for crazy money. We have the issue of holiday homes, second homes and Airbnbs.
So what we want to do is build houses for those that are already living here but want to transition from social housing to be able to own their own home, or for those who want to move back here, like we did. I’m very passionate about housing because I think it’s a massively important issue that we have to tackle here. People should be able to buy their own home.”
This is crucial work which supports local, young and first time buyers. Donna and Rural Housing Scotland hopes to put a dent in the booming housing market by creating new projects in the community, for the community.
“The Smart Clachan Housing Project is an idea which Rural Housing Scotland have come up with to create affordable housing projects across the Highlands and Islands. Their first project is in Rubha Bhuailt, in partnership with Stòras Uibhist. In this project we are building eight affordable homes in Lochboisdale for people to buy through shared equity. Rubha Bhuailt will also have a community workspace and a digital hub.”
This is very promising news for our community and we would support more initiatives such as these in the Highlands and Islands. Donna has also followed through with her beliefs while selling their first Benbecula home earlier in the year:
“Are you going to have it as an Airbnb?’ was the first thing I asked anyone that messaged asking about the house and if so, I wasn’t interested.”
“I sold my Balivanich house on Facebook so it would stay local. I didn’t use an agency because I wanted it to be lived in. I got it ready, took all the photos and shared it online amongst everyone here. There was plenty of interest, and I did sell it locally and I made sure that it wasn’t going to be used as an Airbnb at the time.
This is an issue which we continue to tackle in the islands and we hope will be alleviated soon. Although the housing market is hard to control, stories like Donna’s give us a glimmer of light that there are other ways to buy and sell apart from by accepting the highest possible offer.
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If you need help or support to buy your own house then please do get in touch with Donna Young at Rural Housing Scotland, or the newly appointed CNES Settlement Officer, Kareen MacRury who will be happy to answer your queries about coming “home” home.
You can also follow Donna and Gary Young’s renovation progress on their new Grimsay family home on instagram.
