HOMES NORTH SELECTED TO MANAGE SOCIAL HOUSING IN THE NEW ENGLAND AND NORTH WEST AS PART OF THE NSW GOVERNMENT’S PLANS TO BRING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND DIVERSITY TO SERVICES

Today the Honourable Pru Goward, Minister for Social Housing, announced the successful bidders in a competitive tender that will see around 14,000 Social Housing tenancies transferred from Government to Community Housing Providers. Homes North has been selected to manage around 1,800 tenancies in the New England and North West region of NSW.

“Homes North is delighted with this opportunity to provide more services and resources to our region” said CEO, Maree McKenzie, “we will use our networks, local knowledge, commitment and expertise to ensure Social Housing residents in the transferred homes receive improved services and have access to greater opportunities in life.”

Under the transfer programme residents will benefit from our proven customer service focus. Homes North values face-to-face contact and we will expand our current 6 branches across the region. “As a not-for-profit regionally-based organisation, you can be assured of continual re-investment back into services that benefit Social Housing residents and local communities” said Maree McKenzie.

Homes North listens to tenants. Tenants have a voice through our various tenant groups. We aim to deliver a service that fits the needs of regional and rural areas. We will bring this collaborative approach to the management of the transferred tenancies. We will link residents to opportunities that improve their well-being. We will provide pathways to volunteering, education, training and employment.

“We see being an established part of the community as one of our greatest assets and the key to delivering on one of the NSW Government’s key objectives: improving the experience of Social Housing. Our consistently high satisfaction ratings tell us this approach works for tenants. We also want all of our community to value Social Housing as important social and physical infrastructure – so we will be looking to engage with local services and communities as a whole to achieve this outcome” said Maree McKenzie.

Homes North will be collaborating with agencies and services across the region to help us deliver outcomes for Social Housing residents. “We believe passionately in the capacity of regional NSW, and we want our local service partners to be a part of this opportunity to keep resources and strategic planning localised” said Maree McKenzie.

If you would like more information about this release, please contact Maree McKenzie, CEO at 0408401547 or email at mareem@homesnorth.org.au.

Click here to read today’s Media Release from Pru Goward, Minister for Family and Community Services, Minister for Social Housing and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.