Putting People First: Tenant & Resident Safety

Putting People at the Heart of Tenants & Residents Safety

A bit about me, and why...

I'm Shakirah, a built environment professional - both my parents are residents of a Social Landlord. My Mum is extremely fortunate compared with many others - Yet I still worry about her safety, security and well-being at home. My Dad's situation is very different, he's elderly and while he is housed by a Council - his home and tenancy is managed externally. He has very different needs, that aren't being provided, and as such falls very short of the quality, and social services he deserves. Part of the reason is he is unable to communicate, does not know what his rights, nor his responsibilities are.  

My Mum is an ex Housing Officer, qualified both socially and technically. So she knows her rights, responsibilities but has also been on the other side. She understands the onus has shifted to her for record keeping, and evidence logs, in case anything goes wrong. Yet even then, as I have witnessed, on many occasions where repairs are reported, or complaints are raised - neglect, discrimination, ignorance, defensiveness. To the point where she only now escalates anything she feels is either health, or life threatening. Because, unless there is adequate resources to address these issues, frustration, and blame gets thrown around. She has been in the position of wanting to do more, but simply having her hands tied by irrelevant paperwork, and a lack of resources.

I've worked across various roles within the built environment, including and currently with landlords. As a resident of Social Housing myself, I have these combined perspectives to bring together, alongside the experiences and insights of other residents, and industry colleagues. 

My start up, Teqie kicked off following the Grenfell Fire, and this specific journey began soon after. I've since had the privilege of learning from, working, and consulting with residents, landlords, aligned professionals across real estate, construction and information technology. This campaign forms part of our next steps, and intention to build a community of supporters, collaborators and partners. Most importantly to build the solutions we're missing, together - that leverages information technology to enable safer, sustainable living for all. 

Unless you’re a tourist, or temping - You’re most likely considered a Resident. (You can be a Resident, and own your home too, but - )

Most, if not all of us, are either in, or know someone in Social Housing, or private renting via HMO. Similarly, many of us are, work with, or know a Landlord too.

Do You Believe:

All Residents deserve to live safely, and comfortably?

Landlords, & their staff deserve to operate safely, & with less stress?

That better information, & engagement between Residents and Landlords, saves lives, and costs?

If you do...

Pledge your support now.

Once you've pledged, keep reading, to find out more on how you can support better outcomes for Residents, and Landlords!

Aim of this Campaign?

Empower People in Housing -

• Residents and Tenants, who feel like their voices aren’t heard - to easily, conveniently represent themselves, and engage better with their landlord.
• Tenant and resident associations (TRA’s) Chairs, Community and Neighbourhood Leaders that serve, and represent residents to have access to the tools, resources, and information they need, and use regularly, from one centralised accessible place.
• Staff and Partners of Landlords serving the residents, and community on the ground, to have easier access to the resources they need, to eliminate stress, admin - so they have more time, and energy to meet the demands of residents, management, and compliance.

Our focus is to enable all residents, regardless of their age, ability, background, and tenure to know, and feel they are

• Safe, secure and warm in their homes.
• Connected to their neighbourhood, and community
• Partners, and have ownership over their safety at home
• Responsible, and have rights to good quality living

There are already so many Property management, Tenant, and Resident platforms out there, and in use by Landlords, and managers to engage with residents. The benefits gained from them are largely connected with the Landlord, and their current level of engagement. They don’t necessarily help improve, or support a better resident <> landlord engagement. Another reason for this is the adversarial attitudes across the different stakeholders. 

Residents can see landlords as exploiting them, seeing them as numbers, and failing their responsibilities. While Landlords can see residents as ungrateful, entitled, and also, failing their responsibilities. There is a lack of awareness, and understanding on both sides, that systems, and platforms cannot fix. 

This is different

We aim to explore the problems and root causes, *with* The People - by testing inclusive, and accessible ways to use to technology to amplify the collective voice of residents. By increasing the number of TRA’s available. Not just the groups themselves, but the tools, and resources to enable more TRA’s to be created, and provide resources for existing ones. This benefits Residents, and their Landlords.

Tenant and resident associations (TRA’s) are groups of people who live in the same area and rent, lease or own their homes. They get together to make sure that their landlords and housing associations listen to their concerns and fix problems with their homes.

TRAs’ can be really helpful. They can:

• Help tenants and residents get repairs done
• Make sure that landlords follow the law
• Get involved in planning for new developments in the area
• Organise events and activities for the community

But TRA’s aren't perfect. They can be:

• Hard to get involved in
• Lacking in resources
• Not representative of the whole community
• Time intensive for the Chairs

Overall, TRA’s are a great way for tenants and residents to make their voices heard. But they need support from landlords, housing associations, and the government, local authorities (councils) to be truly effective.

Better Engagement Improves Safety, and Satisfaction

Landlords aim to keep their residents and tenants safe, satisfied, cooperative, and engaged. They want to keep their staff happy, and stress free so that they stay with them.

Residents and tenants have a more personal stake in the safety, and sustainability of their homes. It affects our health, our families, our comfort and quality of life. 

Landlords, and their staff are a part of the community, and will either manage, or connect to the hub simplifying the information and communication exchanges, to eliminate wasteful admin, and reduce time spent on casework. With their residents permission, more personal information will be accessible, on a case by case basis - to ensure secure, and easy handover of resident engagement records among staff.

Pledge Your Support

By supporting this campaign, you’ll help in:

• The formation, and development of more tenant/resident-led digital TRA’s
• Uniting and connecting existing TRA’s
• Ensuring the diverse needs of tenants/residents in accessing and controlling information.
• Improving tenant/residents inclusion in, and benefits from how their landlord uses their information
• Improving Landlords the ability to connect to, engage and serve their communities, tenants and residents
• Reducing the strain and stress, that wasteful administrative work that all stakeholders are currently involved in

What are the Next Steps?

We’ll connect with as many of you as possible - residents, TRA’s and landlords to engage, and collaborate with as partners. To explore the problem further with interviews, shadowing/observations, and focus groups.

We’ll digitise existing records, paperwork, files for residents, TRA Chairs, and landlords to meet Industry information management standards. These start to form the Digital Home Files for every Resident that doesn’t have one. The ability to centralise all things home is a huge benefit for many residents, not just home or asset owners. It can especially be useful when exchanging information.

We’ll work together to agree the best way to collaboratively develop the platform that would centralise the tools, like Whatsapp, Facebook, Email, Meetings, Document management, and others that TRA’s and Landlord Staff need when connecting and engaging with residents.

You can find out more on our notion page.

What we ask of you

Pledge £1 (or more) 

(to confirm your support of this campaign)

Be an Advocate - Share this campaign 

(with your friends, family, colleagues, managers, everyone!)

 Complete and Share this Questionnaire 

Check out our website if you want to find out more - www.teqie.co.uk

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