BIH Housing Association - Annual Report and Accounts 2007/2008

Allocations

This year a total of 535 allocations were made in accordance with the Common Selection Scheme. 12% of these were to existing BIH tenants moving within our stock and 11% were made to Housing Executive transfers. Over 50% of allocations were made to applicants in urgent housing need. Few applicants were accommodated due to mortgage debt repossession, but it is anticipated that this situation will change in the forthcoming financial year. Lettings made by our Joint Management partners for temporary accommodation amounted to 516 over the year.

Click to view Allocation Chart

Click to view Allocation Chart (points by %)

Empty Homes

Voids expressed as a percentage of rent loss reduced from 1.07% to 1.04%. A successful initiative has been the use of ‘To Let’ signs at a number of schemes with smaller waiting lists.

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House Sales

The number of houses purchased by tenants reduced from 25 to 11 this year. This was expected due to high market values in 2007. House Sales are likely to remain at a low level during the current ‘credit crunch’.

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Rent Arrears

Current Tenant Arrears reduced to 3.46% of rent receivable. Past Tenant Arrears also reduced to 2.10%. Debt remains an area that requires continuous and intensive management and counselling.

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Typical Weekly Rent Levels

Property Services

Repair completions by our contractors and Handyman service were within the following target times:

• Emergency (24 Hours): 82% of 2228 repairs
• Urgent (4 Days): 78% of 3768 repairs
• Routine (28 Days): 84% of 4150 repairs
• Change of Tenancy (15 Days): 83% of 436 repairs

Overall 83% of all repairs were completed on time.

748 properties were included in the Cyclical & Planned Maintenance Scheme as work continues on bringing our stock up to the Decent Homes Standard.

Click to view Repairs Chart (total jobs completed)

Click to view Repairs Chart (measured term contracts)

Supported Housing

The Supported Housing section co-ordinates the delivery of our support service and monitor schemes jointly managed by our voluntary sector partners and Health & Social Care Trusts in order to meet Supporting People requirements. This year the average occupancy rate for our joint management schemes providing accommodation for a number of different client groups was 95%. For Category One schemes for older people there was 95% occupancy and 97% in respect of Category Two schemes. Kathy Duffy (Community Support Officer) was the first recipient of the new annual Customer Service Award.

Tenants Forum

The Tenants Forum and its Executive met ten times during the year and held its first Annual Conference in September 2007. Mrs Kathleen Quinn (Chairman) and Mrs Mavis Hogg MBE (Secretary) also serve on the Board of the Association and Mrs Hogg is Chairman of the Housing Committee. The Forum plays an important function in policy making and setting service standards as well as a being a formal consultative body.

Complaints & Compliments

30 written complaints were received and replied to in accordance with the Complaints Policy. A further 82 complaints were received about antisocial behaviour. We also received 21 compliments.

Staffing

Our properties are managed on a geographical basis with each staff team headed by an Area Housing Manager:

• South/East Team: Marian Cushnan
• South/West Team: Brenda Beeks
• North Team: Alison McBride & Andrea Mitchell (job share arrangement)

These teams comprise of 25 office-based staff including 3 Debt Recovery Officers, 17 Housing and Administrative Officers. 12 Community Co-ordinators have been in place since April 2008.

• Property Services Manager: George Downey

This section has 13 staff including 2 Property Surveyors, 4 Technical Officers and 4 Handymen.

• Supported Housing Manager: Louise Roberts

This section has 23 staff including 4 Community Support Officers and 18 Scheme Coordinators.

• Health & Safety Officer: Anne Mageean