Transforming social housing through innovation

Abstract

Practical changes can deliver improved benefits. This includes a shift towards a technology strategy and ethos that puts tenants at the heart of service delivery.

Such a strategy might include the use of location-based intelligence to deliver more targeted social housing programs.

This is critical given that much of the housing stock out there doesn’t match the demographic for social housing tenants.

Many of the properties available are three-bedroom houses which are costly to maintain, while the majority of people that need them aren’t families. Often, they’re either single people, elderly couples, or people with one child. This mismatch has resulted in stock becoming underutilised, while many prospective tenants are left without homes.

Using location-based intelligence technology, CHPs can more clearly assess the demographics of a certain area and assesses their specific needs – an approach widely used in commercial property development.

A tenant-centric strategy would also see CHPs take a proper assessment of the specific needs of their tenants. This includes placing considerable attention on centring newly-developed properties in areas where people can get access to the essential services they need. While this may be different for each individual tenant, it may include things like mental health support, alcohol or drug rehabilitation services, and specific specialists or health practitioners.

Other factors include proximity to public transport, which is especially prudent given the increasing preference on behalf of the government to build properties in regional areas, where support services can be scarce. Technology can play a key role in this regard, providing CHPs with analytics platforms to assess multiple data points and trends and manage needs effectively.