When residents feel heard and understood, social housing standards will quickly improve.
In every home, street and neighbourhood, social housing tenants have conversations their landlord may never hear – “I’ve lost my job and worried about paying the rent”, “We have black mould in our bedroom” or “I couldn’t sleep last night because of all the noise”.
These conversations are about so much more than a home’s walls and windows; they lift the lid on the reality of people’s lives, relationships and daily struggles.
Knowing about what’s going on for residents and their homes gives housing providers a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live in the communities they’re building. It also helps strengthen the relationship between tenants and their landlord, which encourages people to reach out for help, particularly when they feel they can’t turn anywhere else.
We’ve changed the way we work at Sutton Housing Partnership to give our tenants more opportunities to speak out and make it easier for our staff to listen and respond to people’s changing needs. This has helped us to deliver a more meaningful service, far beyond the provision of social housing.
Residents can click, call or come in
We manage over 7,500 properties which are home to both tenants and leaseholders with a broad range of needs. We also provide comprehensive housing services to two other social landlords including a for-profit provider, MTD Housing.
We realised that one way to encourage residents to engage was to give them more choice in how they could contact us.
People sometimes want to just report a leaky tap or check their rent account quickly online if they’re rushing to work or to pick up their children from school. Others prefer to speak with someone they know and trust, either over the phone or in person.
We’ve given residents both on- and offline options for engaging with us and they know they can get in touch however they prefer. Interactions have increased ten-fold as a result, and this has helped us to ensure that we have the information we need to better support them.
Human connections
Another step we’ve recently taken to increase engagement with residents is what we call the ‘new deal’; this is all about creating more opportunities for face-to-face contact.
Previously, each of our housing managers had over 900 households to visit, which made it impossible to get round every property with the regularity they wanted. Even when they could visit someone, there was never enough time to stop and have a meaningful chat with them.
This meant a housing manager was unlikely to know if a tenant was struggling financially following a relationship breakdown or that a young person in the household had suddenly become a carer for their elderly relative.
As part of the ‘new deal’, our housing managers became the go-to person for all housing matters, from managing rental payments to resident engagement and making sure people were receiving all the benefits to which they were entitled. The only thing they don’t handle is repairs because this requires specialist skills such as expertise in building surveying.
Crucially, the number of tenancies each housing manager is responsible for has been reduced to around 370, which gives them much more time to be available to residents. Each household is encouraged to contact their housing manager direct if they have any problems or concerns, and any new information that could affect a tenancy is updated to our NEC housing management system.
Joining the dots
The accuracy of information is the heartbeat of a good housing service so we encourage our staff to make keeping it up to date a priority. It means we can join up the latest details on residents and their homes to highlight problems that might not otherwise come to light. We can quickly see if a report of damp and mould comes in from a young family’s home, for example, and can then flag the repair as a priority.
The changes we’ve made also let us view a combination of information from residents’ feedback, details of previous contacts and rental payment patterns in one place. This can tell you more about what help people need with their homes or other problems they might be struggling with than you’d ever be able to glean from looking at these pieces of information in isolation.
If a resident reports a noisy neighbour, our staff can quickly check for any related emails or online reports to decide if further action is needed, such as a property visit. Having all the relevant information on screen reassures residents that we’re taking action and makes them feel heard. It could also encourage them to share additional details, such as if the noise is due to a late-night party or a crying baby (and therefore requiring different approaches to resolve).
What really matters
With the right mix of technology, people and data, we now have a better grasp of what really matters to our residents and how we can help.
The changes we’ve made have given us a glimpse into the conversations that shape our residents’ lives. They have helped us move beyond managing properties to build real connections with people.
By listening to residents, we’re building communities where people feel supported and understood. These are the foundations that encourage people to reach out to ask for help when it is most needed.
Steve Tucker is the managing director of Sutton Housing Partnership.
For more information on how technology can help you better support residents, please visit necsws.com/housing.
