Brave renewal world for social housing in NSW

The July budget delivered by the NSW government boasts the Building Homes for NSW program as “the largest ever investment by a NSW Government in public housing in the state’s history”.

After a decade of practices involving selling off publicly owned properties to finance maintenance of the remaining stock, this significant increase in investment and shift in how the government invests signals a brave new approach to the renewal of social housing in NSW. The vision of genuine upgrades to 33,000 homes across the state prompts me to consider how the government could best use this opportunity to deliver not only better homes but also better tenant participation policies.

Social housing is home to a diverse range of people, some of whom have lived in one area for a long time. These renters know their homes, understand their neighbours, and often possess expert knowledge of issues impacting their community. Yet, residents of state-owned properties have faced discrimination and poor service delivery when requesting repairs and maintenance of their homes. 

With the new era of maintenance and repairs in NSW social housing, I look to previous recommendations we’ve made, recommendations from others, and also draw upon recent experiences from renewal projects overseas to imagine a new approach to social housing tenant participation. 

In the 2017 report, Compact for Renewal, jointly undertaken by Shelter NSW, TUNSW and the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW, the authors sought to negotiate a set of ground rules by which agencies would agree to manage renewal projects in social housing areas. The report emphasises the need for state agencies to understand their priorities in the renewal process and to “work through the list of what tenants want from renewal to identify a set of ground rules both parties are comfortable with.“

Grounded in data gathered from eight focus group sessions across Sydney, the report states that genuine engagement provides a crucial pathway for people who rent to discuss their fears and concerns about the proposed renewal project and its impacts. Moving is one of life’s most stressful events, known to disrupt routines, force relocation to unfamiliar suburbs and affect people’s physical and mental health. Apart from alleviating some of the shared concerns about renewal projects, consulting renters on planned upgrades can draw out valuable insights and transferable approaches to renewal. 

After all, renters are experts in their own lives and, if adequately supported by planning and architectural experts, have the capacity to outline the optimal renewal plan for their neighbourhoods.

There are apparent similarities in the priorities identified by renters with experience of social housing renewal in Sydney and the London borough upgrade projects championed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan in recent years.

In 2018, in Better Homes for Local People – The Mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration, Mayor Khan discussed the necessity of building a positive relationship between the residents and their council (or housing association landlord) for the estate regeneration project to be successful. The guide stresses the importance of early and meaningful engagement that enables residents to be involved “in developing the vision, options appraisals, design, procurement, and delivery of schemes.”

The Guide analyses the range of tenant engagement practices required for resident participation to be meaningful and productive. It describes the need to contact and build trust with public housing renters who may have previously been left out of government-run consultations based on factors like their employment status, criminal record, or complex health needs, as well as engaging with established resident associations. 

Apart from the need for all consultations to be extensive, The Mayor’s Guide lists three other key elements of tenant consultation in the early stages of a renewal project:

• transparency in the language used to describe issues and options available;

• responsiveness in terms of the actions taken directly from the views expressed by the people and;

• meaningful, that is, explanations and alternative courses of action are provided in cases when the government doesn’t agree with the views of the renters impacted by the project.

This type of deep collaborative decision-making process has been lacking from the experience of NSW social housing residents. We have previously described how opportunities for renters to contribute to governance over their community have been systematically reduced in favour of growing emphasis on professional skills on boards and company membership structures.

As Homes NSW embarks on the challenging and ambitious journey to breathe new life into previously neglected social housing homes, the possibility of improving standards in tenant engagement and resident consultation is also coming into focus. 

A positive sign of a change in approach came in a period before introducing the in-house Maintenance Hub. In February 2024, Homes NSW began inviting people living in social housing to consultation sessions around the new planned delivery of maintenance services with the plan to test new processes by July and report on the outcomes of newly adapted procedures by the end of 2024.

During a recent announcement of the first tranche of social homes renewal, Housing Minister Rose Jackson said she wanted to see existing homes restored to their former glory instead of falling into disrepair and shorten the wait for people eligible for social housing.

“This is about putting residents of our public housing properties at the heart of what we do and by working cohesively with experienced partners to deliver our maintenance (...)”, Minister Jackson noted.  

So far, how has the NSW Labor government responded to repeated calls from renters for better oversight and delivery of urgent and planned repairs to public housing properties?

One key change is that as of July, an in-house Maintenance Hub now serves as a one-stop-shop for raising, tracking and filing complaints for repairs. Hopefully, this new system, built with input from surveyed renters, will deliver better maintenance and repair outcomes for all people living in social housing while remaining responsive to any feedback from the residents to optimise its capacity for success.

Looking to the future and considering the significant number of properties slotted for renewal, especially as the first round of HAFF projects are announced we expect to soon see the NSW government announce further consultation programs for renters in social housing. Each site renewal project carries an opportunity for meaningful engagement with residents that leaves people feeling heard and clear on the changes they can expect and the challenges they might have to work through. Providing transparent and accessible language in that process will guarantee a better understanding of the modifications to come and build greater trust in how the process of renewal will unfold.

What remains to be explored is how the government might genuinely engage with the renters in social housing, providing avenues for people to feed into the decision making processes surrounding the redevelopment of their homes and neighbourhoods. Finding paths to meaningful tenant participation, and giving renters a voice and agency could help reshape the relationship between state as a landlord and renters living in social housing.