Helping tenants to #getonline

From 12-18 October, community organisations took part in . Housing associations took up the gauntlet of supporting tenants with learning digital skills, ensuring that they are confident with a range of online activities, such as applying for jobs and setting up e-mail accounts.

Sovereign housing association has shown best practice by offering free internet use, alongside low-cost schemes enabling tenants to access broadband and computers in their own homes. has taken the initiative one step further by installing interactive screens for residents to take selfies and leave messages in a bid to generate community conversations.

 

 

Tenant support under threat

An eye-opening posted by John Popham on 16 October raised the issue of imminent cuts to ‘non-core’ services for vulnerable social housing tenants.

Popham states that a by ‘Inside Housing’ last week showed that 72.1% of landlords are reducing the provision of ‘non-core’ activities, such as well-being services and the digital initiatives mentioned above. Popham has launched a ‘Non-Core Watch’, and invites us all to use social media (using #noncore) to raise awareness of any social landlords, ‘cutting back on activities which improve tenants’ lives.’

Housing crisis hits all generations

Dawn Foster reported on  last week that two young babies died recently after their respective parents were left homeless. The exact causes of death are unclear, but both children were less than 9 weeks old and had recently been rejected for emergency council accommodation.

At the other end of the scale, the result of our rapidly ageing society is a focus on . Developers are looking at the economic viability of the return of the granny annexe. Whatever the future for social housing, in the words of Foster,

“Housing must be seen as a human right for every citizen young and old, and funded accordingly.”

 

TP Tracker users can identify vulnerable tenants by using the Profiling module. By adding the optional Support module, users can develop and manage ‘non-core’ activities, monitoring the resulting benefit for tenants whilst also measuring their own SROI. For more information please e-mail enquiries@tptracker.com.

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