Summer / Autumn residents meeting 2023
Summary
Autumn residents meeting
Wednesday 27th September 2023
Attended by:
Yves, Debbie, Nat, Isobella, Mohammed, Abi, Greg, Victoria, Brian, Daniel, Amanda, Nell, Rich. Apologies from Margaret who had hoped to attend.
Boiler House update
One of our estate residents who is a Boiler House trustee provided an update on the planned development. They’ve provided a written version which is available to read here.
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Estate issues
The feeling of frustration was strong in the autumn meeting. Residents discussed how their lives are being impacted by the issues they’re forced to live with, compounded by the effort of trying to get assistance or action from Southern Housing (who’s service gets worse while their service charges continue to rise).
Tracking issues / submitting complaints to Southern Housing / Housing Ombudsman
We’ve set up a system that we’re using to track the estates individual and communal issues. Now we’re supporting residents in submitting complaints to Southern Housing and distributing information about contacting the housing sectors regulatory body, the Housing Ombudsman, if Southern Housings complaints go unanswered, as most unfortunately are. We reported that the Housing Ombudsman has now launched a special investigation into the maladministration of Southern Housings complaints process.
Going forward
While we’ve had some success going through the standard official channels, the improvement falls woefully, short of Southern Housings duty to their residents.
So we’ve begun a conversation about what we could do outside of this process to increase our impact and be more effective towards positive change.
It was good to hear peoples thoughts, and we came away from the meeting with a selection of positive, practical ideas.
On one hand, there are the more formal legal possibilities, and we were able to get some fantastic advice, recommendations and offers of assistance from a resident who works in the field of data within the legal system.
Then there were suggestions about ways we can show the human side of residents experiences. Get our voices heard. Some strong ideas came up which we look forward to collaborating on.
Keep an eye on the website for more on this and get in touch with any questions, thoughts or suggestions.
Thanks to everyone that attended
