The support we offer to help you sustain your tenancy
Here, Craig Taylor, Director of Housing and Customer Services, talks about some of the support we offer to customers to help them sustain their tenancies...
I know the importance of people having a roof over their head and a place they can call home. That’s why, as Director of Housing and Customer Services, I’m passionate about ensuring we offer our customers as much support as possible to ensure they can sustain their tenancies and have somewhere safe to live.
As a housing association, sustaining tenancies is our priority and eviction is always our last resort. I’d much rather we speak to customers and work with them to overcome their challenges than see them end up homeless.
By understanding their circumstances and individual situation, we can ensure we’re there to help and find solutions to help them overcome those barriers and go on to having a brighter future.
Where we see a tenancy in arrears, our Income Recovery Team will proactively initiate contact with the customer and find out what money concerns or worries they have and how we can support with that. We have our own team of Money Advisors who we can refer the customer to.
These colleagues can ensure that customers are maximising their benefit entitlement or claiming the correct benefits, as well as give some budgeting tips and advice.
We also have our Tenancy Sustainment Officers and we can get them involved if a customer has had a change of circumstances that involve several different agencies. Our TSOs can pull together all the relationships a customer has with internal and external partners and ensure there’s a joined-up approach to helping them overcome their issues.
We’ll also put together a realistic and affordable payment plan which helps with repayments. If a customer engages with us and shows a willingness to repay, then we’ll give them our full support to sustain their tenancy and eviction will be a last resort.
We also have our Hardship Fund, which we use to help customers in situations where they need to replace items such as washing machines or cookers and must choose between paying rent or for replacement items. We can also use this if customers are really struggling to pay energy bills and we can refer to foodbanks as well.
Our colleagues also work closely with local authorities to help tackle homelessness in our communities. We allocate a minimum of 50 percent of our properties to those most in need and work with councils to allocate these homes to people.
If customers are moving into these homes with absolutely nothing, which can often be the case, we work with other agencies to source soft furnishings, household items and other things to get the tenancy off to the best possible start.
We want to do everything we can to help all our customers ensure they can sustain their tenancy. If you’re struggling, we want to hear from you so we can work together to find a solution. If you need support, please call us on 0800 111 4013.