Bizarre? Why, anything about public housing is bizarre if it departs from the circular firing squads that define interaction between government, public housing management and their tenants on both sides of the Atlantic.
Who’s blaming who now? Certainly, all public housing’s myriad problems are never the government’s fault. Blame bad management, blame the tenants, and step aside while they blame each other.
Meanwhile, activists on all sides focus on the government. That explains why they were particularly disappointed that a recent United Kingdom publication — The Charter for Social Housing Residents made no commitment to attack the real root of the problem: not enough housing. Instead it focused on rules with which to spank its naughty children. This time around, in a White Paper published in November 2020, the target is delinquent housing management.1
Well, it can’t be all bad if the UK government has decided to create a bill-of-rights for public housing tenants, outlining some of the treatment they should be entitled to in the wake of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire where resident safety concerns fell on deaf ears.
These days, a little exploration in the media provides an endless supply of stories about government indifference, or open hostility, to public housing management incompetence or veniality, and indifference or brutality toward tenants.
So it comes as some small comfort to discover that not all housing managers need to go to “Charter” school to learn how to successfully interact with their tenants.
Some already do their best, even submitting their efforts in hopes of winning awards.
Of interest, then, to anyone involved with public or social housing: what does award-winning public housing management behaviour actually look like? Read more in BDAILY NEWS: Top tenants service award for Grŵp Cynefin
Footnotes
- The following article oriented to its impact on management behaviour has both a lengthy exploration, as well as a summary in red a short scroll down the article: The social housing white paper: Implications for landlords
