3. How can we build support for affordable housing?

D . Build Relationships…

The value of building relationships with your Council and community as early as possible, and over the life of the project, cannot be over-estimated.

This includes getting to know your Council and helping them to understand your organisation and your project, and building a long-term partnership that benefits you both.

Consulting early and often with your ‘host community’, in particular immediately surrounding residents, is as also critical. Incorporating what you hear into your plans to the greatest extent possible, and regularly reporting back to the community, will also help win support.

Ideas for consulting with your community

Support and acceptance for a proposal from a site’s local community, particularly nearby residents, is important at all stages of a development and after occupancy.

Whilst it is impossible for a proponent to please everyone, there are a number of things you can do to pro-actively and respectfully engage with the local community to ideally produce a better quality development, reduce resistance and eventually obtain their support and acceptance of the proposal.

• Research any council or pubic reactions to previous affordable housing proposals;
• Compile a basic demographic profile of your community (at ABS Census SA1 scale);
• Target your communication about the proposal to immediately surrounding residents, for example, conduct an initial letter box of information, and a face-to-face door knock by skilled communicators in your organisation;
• Identify and clearly communicate what input to design and other aspects of the development from the community is possible and what isn’t;
• Provide the local community with opportunities for early and meaningful input into design and those aspects of the development that are negotiable;
• If you are able to accommodate their concerns and suggestions do so, and make sure to let people know how you’ve changed your designs based on their input;
• Keep neighbours well-informed about the progress of the project throughout the application and development phases;
• Ensure that once a development is built and lived in that it is managed pro-actively and responsibly, whether services are provided by a private real estate manager or a CHP.
• Make sure neighbours and local residents are aware of and understand how complaints or concerns can be made to the property manager, and what they can reasonably expect in terms of timeliness of response.
• If complaints are reported, ensure that issues are dealt with and addressed promptly and effectively. This is an on-going requirement for managers and a further investment in community goodwill for the long term.
• Ensure that there is a continuous investment of time and energy into relationship building between the manager, neighbours and local residents.

Be aware that a few isolated issues not handled satisfactorily from the point of view of neighbours can adversely shift local perceptions about the development, and about affordable housing more generally.

back

next