Tenant Consultation

Tenant Consultation

Unity Housing creates opportunities for people to live in homes they can afford in places they want to live. Our model builds on the belief that the only way to achieve this is to engage with the communities we are working with to:

  • Develop an understanding of local needs and issues
  • Build on local assets and strengths
  • Tap into existing community networks and knowledge
  • Build social cohesion and inclusiveness by working in a collaborative, inclusive and cooperative manner
  • Develop new responses to identified needs in the community

Unity Housing is committed to encouraging a culture of mutual respect between staff, tenants and local communities. We believe that facilitating tenants to contribute to and participate in the organisation and in their local community will bring about a broad range of benefits. These benefits encompass:

  • Empowering individuals
  • Improving service delivery through engagement and consultation with tenants
  • Strengthening our accountability through participation
  • Increasing capacity
  • Increasing participation in the community
  • A positive impact on the community leading to increased understanding and acceptance of Unity’s tenant population

Tenant information

Information is the first level of engagement, and before tenants can become engaged and participate they need information which is accurate, up-to-date and easily understood. To do this, Unity Housing provides:

  • A clear and concise tenancy agreement
  • A regular tenants’ magazine – Around the House
  • Leaflets and guides on services provided
  • The Unity Housing website
  • Individual letters related to a range of service and/or tenancy issues
  • Home visits to discuss services or matters related to individual tenancies

Consultation through empowerment

Unity provides feedback opportunities to all tenants. To ensure tenants have an opportunity to have their views heard, a range of consultation techniques are used, including:

  • Local themed or specific issue meetings/events
  • Home visits
  • Telephone, written and/or email correspondence
  • Satisfaction surveys
  • Focus groups
  • A feedback and complaints process
  • Online networking opportunities

We appreciate there will always be occasions when we will be unable to meet everyone’s aspirations. Our aim is to reach a consensus with common sense at the core of our decisions.

When does Unity Housing conduct engagement?

Unity Housing consults tenants on a wide range of service delivery and policy development issues, which include but are not limited to the following:

  • Responsive repairs and planned maintenance programs
  • Policies and procedures related to allocations and tenancy management
  • Agreements, tenant participation, anti-social behaviour, information provision and the local community
  • Modernisation and new build developments
  • Rent and service charges setting and review
  • Unity’s complaints and feedback processes
  • Cultural needs and issues