With International Women’s Day on 8 March, it is a fitting time to look at women’s role in the community housing sector. Of the 26 community housing providers from six jurisdictions that participated in the 2016 House Keys Workforce, the data indicated that 72% of employees the community housing sector are women.

For senior managers, 66% were female and 34% male. Interestingly, there were a greater proportion of men on board of CHPs, with 60% male board members and 40% women.

CHIA spoke to leading women in the community housing sector to hear their insights on women’s place in the sector. Jill Ritherdon (CEO and Company Secretary, Venture Housing), Leonie King (CEO, City West Housing) and Michele Adair (CEO, Housing Trust) gave their perspectives below:

Do you think the community housing sector is a good field for women to work in?

J.R: The sector provides excellent opportunities for women, at all levels of their career and in a broad selection of roles.  I would go so far as to suggest that this sector is a significant employer of women, particularly in those roles that directly interface with tenants.  And women are well-represented in senior executive roles across Australia.  The entire staff at Venture are women.  This was not by design but, rather, the women who applied for the roles when advertised, had the successful combination of business acumen, the requisite qualifications and experience, good negotiation and problem-solving skills, initiative, empathy and a desire to work with and for purpose.

L.K: The sector provides a unique opportunity to balance social and commercial issues, to focus on specific client groups or a diverse cohort of people, to work for big or small organisations, regional providers or metropolitan providers.  It is a growth industry with a wide range of disciplines and the opportunities are there to be taken or created.  It’s a great sector for anyone to work in, not just women, however the diversity of the sector and the services we provide means there are many more opportunities for women than in some other industries.

M.A: Absolutely, it’s a wonderful sector for women. Community housing is the perfect social enterprise as it provides the head-heart alignment many women look for in their careers. Our businesses are very commercial with big property budgets and long-term asset portfolios. We work closely to support tenants living with complex needs and we actively engage in the media and political arena. It doesn’t matter what skills, qualifications or interests you have, they’re needed in this sector. As with all sectors, more diversity leads to better business outcomes and better societies.

In your opinion, what changes need to be made to further assist women working in the community housing sector?

J.R: In broad terms, more flexibility for parents (of any gender) of young children within the parameters of the operational needs of the organisation.  However, I do believe that the Community Housing sector is, for the most part, a leader in this area. And more one on one coaching of younger women and encouragement to pursue relevant professional development.

L.K: While the sector is diverse and the role of community housing providers multi-faceted, there are still some divisions along gender lines. Notwithstanding this there are a growing number of women in a broad range of leadership roles in the sector, both in management and on community housing provider boards. Those of us in leadership roles need to support and mentor other women to ensure they can develop their skills and to encourage them to stay in the sector for the long-term. I have been very fortunate in the opportunities I have been given throughout my working life, including in the past 10 years or so working in this industry. If I can help create positive change for other women in the sector and for the women who need our services, then I would feel like I have given back.

M.A: The Housing Trust is very supportive of all staff and use the demands that are still more commonly placed on women as the basis for our employment practices. It’s an approach all organisations should adopt. Staff have flexible work arrangements, and we’re White Ribbon accredited and provide 10 days additional family and domestic violence leave. Everything we do reflects our company values – respect, integrity, support and collaboration. We all role model what it means to be a working woman: making choices and keeping lots of balls in the air. The education system has failed to provide the essentials many people need to progress from entry level to team leader and executive roles. We need to invest in work literacy, numeracy and communication skills to make it easier for women to progress. And of course, I’d love to see more leadership development and mentoring programs. There are some great ‘women in trades’ groups, professional services firms with project managers, and allied health service providers. We need to learn from people outside the community housing sector, not just from within it.

Homelessness is on the rise among Australian women, what do you think our sector needs to do to help them?

J.R: The staggering rise in homelessness among Australian women, particularly those over the age of forty-five years, is utterly unacceptable in a caring society. The CHP sector needs to continuously lobby governments to take a longer-term and bipartisan view on this issue. Solving homelessness (particularly for older women) needs to be a joint CHP sector / government (of all persuasions) approach.  Government-owned land should be identified and gifted (with appropriate caveats) to the Community Housing sector.The not-for-profit Community Housing Sector has taxation advantages which it can leverage and also tends to be more nimble than governments in both negotiating and delivering social and affordable housing.  An area for the government to also consider is taxation incentives for the developer than engages with the CHP in the construction of such (or similar) dwellings.

L.K: If we can create more safe, secure and affordable housing that is suitable for women, including older women and single parents, then we are taking positive first steps to help address the ‘new homeless’. If we can go that one step further and help ensure that these women are supported to be able to sustain their tenancy, to secure part or full-time work if of working age, to help broker access to affordable child care to allow them to work or to reduce social isolation for older single women then we would be really hitting some goals. None of this is particularly easy but it is certainly a worthwhile ambition for all of us in the sector, not just the women who work in community housing.

M.A: Firstly, we need the Commonwealth and State Governments to make the provision of safe, affordability housing a priority. Planning, housing and transport need to be aligned and conversation changed for the cost of purchase to crisis in rental affordability. Of the 10 largest job categories in the future 60% will be low paying so a very large number of Australians will never own a home. With the right policy settings and investment, the community housing sector will do its share to help combat the rise of homelessness.

What changes do you hope to bring to the community housing sector?

The main change I want to see is the sector at least quadruple in size. I’ve been in the social affordable housing sector for a long time now and seen the amazing difference it can make for people on lower incomes to medium key-worker housing as well. I hope I’m joining at a time when there is going to be opportunity to make those changes, and to make sure that community housing can be the main delivery vehicle for better housing.

How do you feel your past experience will help you at CHIA national?

There’s work we’ve been doing in NSW which I’d be interested in taking forward nationally. We’ve been focusing on not just how we build and get more social affordable housing, but also how we make sure the services we deliver to people are excellent too. There’s very little point in delivering new housing if the standard of services doesn’t match that. One of the projects that I’m keen to take forward is developing tool kits for providers. This will help them respond to people with complex needs and see how we can potentially adapt and roll it out nationally. We also need to look at the gaps. One of the areas may be veterans. It’s an area that most community housing providers probably haven’t heard about because people don’t always identify themselves as veterans. So, to develop a suite of resources that builds on the work from NSW. Victoria is leading the way in energy responses to energy efficiency. In South Australia there’s a lot of good work that’s gone on in disability housing. The Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia could tell us a thing or two about remote Aboriginal housing. What I’ve learnt is it’s easier to work together and collaborate, rather than doing things from scratch.

What are the biggest challenges the community housing sector faces?

I’m not 100% sure that governments understand the importance of social and affordable housing. It’s still too often seen as a welfare service, and something that people only need or require when they’re in a particularly vulnerable position. It isn’t necessarily seen as a type of housing that’s needed on a long-term basis. One of the challenges for us is to make sure all governments understand housing is a fundamental, social and economic infrastructure. In the very recent past we’ve seen governments change housing policy almost overnight. That really prevents long term investment and therefore growth in social and affordable housing. We need to get the argument across that this is fundamental, and governments should invest in it. It’s not a subsidy. They should invest in it just as they invest in transport or the utilities.

The second big challenge is to make sure the industry gives back as well. It isn’t just about asking government to invest, but also making sure that we build excellent property. We need to have a property standard that we can aspire to, so that properties are there for all segments of the population. It’s a great sector, but it’s only a great sector if it delivers. The project that we want to take forward is developing our own standards as an industry – the National Community Housing Standards. It will be saying how we intend to respond to people who have a disability, people who have experienced domestic and family violence, what we’ll give all our tenants in terms of customer service – those sorts of things.

With the upcoming national election approaching, how do you see the community housing sector’s relationship with government evolving?

I hope that we’ll be seen as a partner. People don’t enter community housing to make loads of money. They usually enter it because they are really committed to the concept. I think we are trustworthy and reliable. In that respect, we should be given more of a say in terms of how and what’s required. So, when government has a policy or programs it wants to introduce, it should be sitting down with us. Because we’re not going to be looking at that program and thinking how much money we can take out of there to pay high salaries. We don’t want to be seeing a program that’s already been designed and having to come afterwards and say, ‘I think you need to tweak it here or tweak it there.’ Because in the end, the people that lose are the government and the tenants.

What are some of your past achievements in the sector?

At CHIA NSW, we worked with Aboriginal housing providers that weren’t our members. We are now partnering with an Aboriginal Community Housing Industry Association in NSW. I’m really pleased about that as its new to me, and I just seriously believe that you never know everything. One of the best ways of keeping young and enthusiastic and energetic is to learn new things. We were able to work with those amazing Aboriginal community housing providers and they’re recruiting at the moment for their first board. They’ve been in existence as a shadow organisation, but they’ll be launching to the world in March with a brand-new board. The great thing is they are not treated by government in the same way the mainstream is. The second thing I’m really pleased about, was setting up the NSW Community Housing industry Council. I’m hoping that council is where the idea of government being seen as a partner will become real.  The council’s purpose is to ensure a strong and viable community housing sector in NSW. Wouldn’t it be great if we could take that – of which the Aboriginal Community Housing Association is a member – and make it national?

What needs to be done to properly implement CHIA’s National Plan?

We need a National Community Housing Council. We also need the country to recognise that it needs to have a proper understanding of housing need. If you’re going to plan for housing, you need to recognise it is an important, economic infrastructure. There needs to be a national framework for housing-needs assessments. There also needs to be state and regional housing-needs assessments. So when we do get investment, it is put into where it’s needed. The Strengthening Economic Cases for Housing Policy is a step in the right direction because it shows what can happen if we plan housing properly. The impact on productivity is tremendous.

The National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH) has announced that from 1 July 2019, the compliance history of CHPs registered under the NRSCH will be published on its website. The aim of these changes is to promote overall confidence in the sector, by making it clear that the sector is effectively regulated and transparent in its reporting.

The key changes are:

• The compliance information history for all registered providers will be displayed on the National Register – including any targeted assessments created after 1 July 2019.
• Any CHPs listed as non-compliant from that date will be shown on the Register (but notices of non-compliance issued before 1 July 2019 will not be listed).
• Where relevant, Executive Assessments of CHPs will also be shown on the Register, to provide a positive counter balance against the non-compliance record.

This is the second phase of planned changes which seek to improve the transparency of publicly available information. The first phase, was implemented in May 2018 and improved the information recorded about providers and, where relevant, any regulatory action taken.

The NRSCH has stressed that the vast majority of CHPs are assessed as fully compliant with the NRSCH requirements. Just five providers have had an overall judgement of being non-compliant, and one of these providers has been de-registered. However, some CHPs will be impacted immediately once the new public reporting of compliance histories is rolled out. At the end of 2018, 11 providers had been issued a notice of non-compliance in relation to some element of the NRSCH requirements. Three of the 11 are no longer registered with the NRSCH.

The NRSCH has assured CHIA that CHPs will be given several months’ notice of the Registrar’s intention to publish the notice of non-compliance on the National Register.

View the NRSCH website here.