Spring residents meeting 2023

Summary

Spring residents meeting
Wednesday 26th April 2023

Attended by:

Residents:
John (Keats Estate), Sean, Nat, Maureen, Isobel, Ian, Margaret, Brian, Abby, Debbie, Aziza, Natasha, Nell, Rich

Representing Southern Housing:
Billy Blankson - Home Services Officer
Karen - Contracts management
Norma - Estate Caretaker

Adriana - Southern Housing resident doing research as a resident reviewer.

Local Councillors:
Caroline Woodley, Sam Pallis

The Spring meeting was dominated by the topic of Southern Housing and United Livings continuing communications and systems failure, resulting in neglect towards residents on this estate.

Central to the systems failure is the fact that for months now it has been almost impossible to report issues. As before, United Living are not receiving phone calls. This is our only way to report issues on the estate.

This has been strongly expressed to Southern Housing but it seems there has not been much (if any) improvement.

Other aspects of the system that are failing were discussed. Residents, Southern Housing representatives and local councillors contributed to the conversation.

People spoke of their experiences of a frustrating communication process, the complexities that become involved in it, and the fact that despite residents efforts there rarely reaches any real action being undertaken by SH / UL. Residents are constantly chasing up jobs and finding that there is often nothing recorded, and finding they have to start the process starts from scratch again and again.

Outcomes of the conversation:

–  SH took a lot of notes that hopefully will get somewhere.

–  Councillors Woodley and Pallis questioned the SH representatives on the system that is being used and offered an insight into the system used by Hackney Council, querying claims that it is not possible to track jobs from start to finish.

–  A resident that has been logging the long and arduous process of trying to get a simple thing done will gather all the information and evidence so we can create a case study illustrating the kinds of timelines that residents are struggling through.

–  Councillor Woodley offered to raise this case study with SH higher ups to address the situation.

Specific issues:
Issues reported to be going unaddressed included:
Lighting (including emergency lighting) internal and external, leaks, broken entry phones, lifts breaking and the questions around service charges and other costs were also discussed.

Something that residents had specifically expressed a need for engagement on was the kitchen refits. Southern Housing provided representation and discussed the issues as far as was possible, although only two of the affected residents were able to attend the meeting so the effectiveness of this was limited. Issues highlighted included poor communication, particularly around the timescales which included long gaps and delays.

Thanks everyone that attended and contributed