Community building work is rewarded with a prestigious award in West Ryde

A firm’s work to enrich life for tenants and families in community housing in Northern Sydney is rewarded at a special ceremony

Link Housing is awarded Community Sector Banking’s 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management, at an informal ceremony in West Ryde

A PRESTIGIOUS award for community building was scooped by a Northern Sydney community housing provider.

Link Housing took the Community Sector Banking’s 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management, at a ceremony in West Ryde last week..

The award recognises Link Housing’s community building strategies which aim to enrich life for tenants and families in community housing in Northern Sydney.

The judges were especially impressed with Link Housing’s strategy FormingLinks, which aims to help tenants develop relationships with each other, and create an overall stronger community.

Currently, one in ten tenants actively engage with Link Housing, which looks to increase to one in five by 2018.

Community Sector Banking (CSB), Australia’s Not-For-Profit banking specialist, launched its Community Housing Impact Award last year to shine a spotlight on the crucial work of housing providers in bridging the gap for affordable housing in Australia.

Link Housing is awarded Community Sector Banking’s 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management, in West Ryde. Pictures (l-r) Andrew McAnulty, CEO Link Housing, Kieran Tuner, State Business Manager, Community Sector Banking and Marie Sillars, tenant at Link Housing development, West Ryde.

CSB CEO Andrew Cairns said: “We are delighted to award Link Housing with our 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management.

“Community housing providers like Link Housing are at the frontline of Australia’s housing affordability crisis, where poor people are being pushed out of the market and into homelessness.

“When a country’s poor spend up to 85% of their income on housing, something is clearly wrong. We know that without access to safe and secure housing, other issues like unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and health become starker in our community”

Link Housing CEO Andrew McAnulty said: “We launched our tenant engagement and community development strategy, FormingLinks, in 2015 to give our tenants greater access to services and support, and enrich their lives through social engagement.

“We recognised the need to increase our tenants opportunities for social engagement, not only because it is widely known to be a key determinant for health, happiness and wellbeing, but also as we knew social isolation was a major issue for our tenants — 47% live alone, many are elderly or have a disability,” McAnulty said.

“We sincerely appreciate receiving Community Sector Banking’s 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management, which recognises our vision to make a lasting difference to the lives of the people who live in our homes and surrounding communities.”