Our Client Success Leader, Ria McIntyre recently attended the recent PowerHousing Exchange in Canberra with Key Partnerships Manager Lucas Docking as part of Taskforce Australia’s sponsorship of the event. Below are some initial thoughts from some of the sessions that Ria attended.
I recently had the privilege of attending the PowerHousing Conference in Canberra as part of Taskforce Australia’s sponsorship of the event. Over two days we were fortunate to hear from international guest speakers as well as local Community Housing Providers (CHPs) and be a part of the collaboration and learning among social housing professionals to further shape the community housing landscape in Australia.
"Housing is a critical aspect of a person's life." (Eileen Fitzgerald, Founder of Thrusight USA)
During a panel discussion on the first morning of the conference, Eileen Fitzgerald (Founder of Thrusight, USA) made the statement that "Housing is a critical aspect of a person's life". In a society where there is a shortage of available rental properties and a housing market that is becoming increasingly harder to enter as a homeowner, having a stable roof over your head provides stability and a secure foundation upon which people build their lives. It's unimaginable to those of us fortunate enough to afford to own or rent a property privately, the insecurity and fear that would perpetuate our lives if we had no home to return to at the end of the day.
Take housing one step further from private rentals into social housing, and you find yourself in the Community Housing space, with many Providers engaging with lower socio-economic renters, with up to 45% of social housing renters having physical comorbidities or mental health conditions that in some cases can prevent them from obtaining ongoing stable housing.
Many of these renters struggle to trust the organisations whose very function is to support them, and in some cases, the Renters are unable to clearly communicate their housing needs. Listening to a roundtable discussion from various organisations in the social housing space, it became clear that everyone sitting at the table had one common goal - to provide safe homes for their renters while also working to find ways to bridge the communication gaps that currently exist.
We live in a world powered by smartphones and technologies designed for us to "self-serve" online.
For example, there is a large digital divide. We live in a world powered by smartphones and technologies designed for us to "self-serve" online, like booking appointments or making payments for goods and services online. Many social housing renters are unable to engage with their housing providers digitally due to literacy deficits, and in some cases, lack of access to devices connected to the internet.
Much of the discussion in the first session roundtable was around the challenges currently facing the community housing organisations who were present - in a lot of cases, the Providers were looking at how to engage better with their renters, to build rapport with them and to make them feel valued, while also trying to understand what is happening structurally to their homes.
Providers were looking at how to engage better with their renters, to build rapport with them and to make them feel valued, while also trying to understand what is happening structurally to their homes.
How does this relate to Taskforce Australia? We are a maintenance and compliance service provider to various Community Housing organisations across the country, and as a part of their network, we are an active part of the wider engagement with the renters who live in social housing. It's our responsibility to aid our CHP partners to make their properties safe and compliant while also contributing actively to the ongoing engagement with Renters. Specifically, if housing providers are unable to build rapport with their renters, in some cases, they would not be able to have an accurate picture of the maintenance needs of each home.
As a starting point for us at Taskforce Australia, we have to ask for the data and statistics from our CHP partners to better understand the changing environment for Renters to aid us in our quest to make their homes safer. Housing is a complicated, intricate aspect of our society, but as a starting point, if we can keep properties compliant and well-maintained, we are indirectly allowing social renters to feel secure and safe at home.
By Ria McIntyre, Customer Success - Lead, Taskforce Australia.