Last Updated on November 24, 2015
Category: All, Social Housing

What messages can we take from #HousingDay 2015


Last Wednesday (18
th November) marked this year’s
#HousingDay, a day designed to highlight the positive impact social housing has on thousands of people across the UK. The day’s theme was #proudtenant a hashtag borrowed from the campaign initiated by Berneslai HomesSo what did we learn from #HousingDay..?

1. Nothing is more powerful than hearing real tenant stories when trying to describe the positive impact social housing can have on individuals’ lives

Zoe Rooney’s story in particular caught our attention;

‘Everyday housing associations are helping residents into work, training, giving benefit advice, well-being and much more.  Quite often this is all done behind the scenes.   Lives are being changed and I think that many still don’t understand this.  I am proud to be part of an organisation that gives someone a nicely stacked pile of bricks and then assists them into achieving a life (a home) that they never thought possible.  I am testament to that’

2. This year’s #HousingDay was linked to the National Housing Federation’s Community Impact Week (#CIW15)

Echoing the words of Zoe Rooney this campaign helped showcase that social housing providers do a lot more than just providing bricks and mortar for their tenants, they are making a real difference in their communities through a variety of projects. The #CIW15 website has shortlisted inspiring projects and will be announcing the winners today (24th November).

3. #HousingDay gave tenants a voice

This year the discussions appeared franker and even more ‘real’, as tenants expressed their concerns over pressing issues such as, the housing crisis, right-to-buy, tax credit cuts, the bedroom tax and pay-to-stay. These issues were highlighted in the one hour #HousingDayChat neatly summarised by John Popham’s Storify.

In summary #HousingDay can be seen as a success, thousands contributed and the profile of social housing was raised. However of course #HousingDay is bigger than just one day, it is a challenging time for social housing and now more than ever tenants and landlords need to work together.

Our TP Tracker users are able to use the Support module to track and measure the impact of their community projects like the ones suggested above. Landlords can use Tracker to collect both data and stories to demonstrate the impact and SROI of such projects, gaining further support from stakeholders and enabling tenants to get more of the services and resources they need. To find out more please e-mail enquiries@tptracker.com. Or call us on 08456 432872 for an informal chat.