This is part of our WISH series of innovative women in housing. This interview features Aileen Evans, CEO of Grand Union Housing, who gives us
Author: Hannah Absalom
Introduction to the WISH and SHM Innovative Women Series
The social housing sector has a long history of innovative women making a difference. The earliest and most well-known example is Octavia Hill. She played
Critical Reflections: Social Purpose and the Bottom Line
Reflecting on Caroline’s article here about whether we have a social purpose in social housing or if it is a myth inspired this short article. This article considers how the research participants for Hannah’s PhD thesis talked about social purpose, or more accurately when reflecting on conversations with housing practitioners, a smooth alignment of ‘social purpose and the bottom line’.
Orbit pledges commitment to social suppliers with the launch of a new procurement platform
A new, innovative open access procurement platform has been launched by Orbit and Supply Change – a social procurement provider – to connect suppliers and buyers to deliver commercial value and social impact.
The new Social Supplier Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) allows buyers to source goods and services from suppliers who can deliver a quality service and a positive impact, such as social enterprises, charities and sheltered workshops.
HomeFinderUK Survey: 77% of homeless people will move out-of-area to avoid facing years in temporary accommodation, survey reveals
A brand new report published today undermines some of the negative assumptions about moving out-of-area and reveals that relocating long distance can be a valid housing alternative to years spent on a council
Let’s Talk About Poverty
By: Hannah Absalom, @HousingHannah On Tuesday 16th March, a national conference was hosted by HQN and Hough Bellis called ‘Hard Times – the HQN Poverty
Getting comfortable with discomfort. An essential first step in poverty work
Hannah Absalom, a former practitioner of 18 years and now PhD student at the University of Birmingham and co-founder of SHM writes about how the housing sector can best approach furthering their understanding of poverty and their role in recognising, alleviating and preventing it.
In this article Hannah focusus on the first step, which is for people to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable about poverty.
Social Housing Tenants – Influence Your Future. Call for Independent Research Participation.
PhD Researcher and SHM co-founder Hannah Absalom asks tenants for their opinions on new ways of delivering services to tenants.
The anonymised findings will be used to contribute to academic research, and also a findings report to the sector.
The aim is to ensure tenants influence the future of services that are ultimately supposed to benefit them.
Are We Missing the Point? Poverty and Social Purpose. New Perspectives from Psychology.
It seems today that poverty is a dirty word. We tend to use technical sounding terms like SES (Social Economic Status) and talk about the
TAROE Trust secures funding for the next three years
We are delighted to announce that we have secured funding that will enable the charity to continue for at least another 3 years. Following our
Celebrating Education – Collaborating with Cardiff Metropolitan University.
We are pleased to work with Cardiff Met’ University, showcasing a series of writings from Housing Studies students on the topic of social purpose and
Nudge Nudge, Think Think! Contribute to cutting edge social housing research.
What is Nudge? Nudge burst into the public consciousness in 2008 with Thaler and Sunstein’s book called, well, ‘Nudge, improving decisions about health, wealth and
Thinking, on Poverty
This article reflects on how behavioural insights can contribute to better designed financial interventions for low income tenants. This encourages a shift away from seeing poverty as reflective of character flaws to a focus on the context of poverty.
Algorithms and segmentation. Reflections on the ethics and practical use in social housing work with tenants.
By Hannah Absalom @HousingHannah Algorithms, segmentation, big data, predictive analytics are buzzwords that sound mysterious and complicated; possible silver bullets to solve some of the
Can Organising the Environment Undermine Crime and Urban Decay? Ideas from the Netherlands
This article explores a Rotterdam area partnerships approach to organized crime/urban decay, and includes overviews of new understandings around this topic that will be of