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Helping social tenants improve or furnish their homes
Offering discounted surplus paint to tenants is just one example of how organisations can help tenants with decorating costs, says Nicola Hughes of social enterprise Forest Recycling Project.
After months, even years, on the housing waiting lists, the keys to an affordable home are finally yours.
You’re delighted, relieved and excited to make the place truly ‘your own’ – until you spot the peeling wallpaper, the worn carpet and the empty space where the washing machine should be.
Electrical work, white goods, furniture, kitchenware, new bills to pay: it can be overwhelming.
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Moving house is stressful. It is also expensive, especially for those social tenants who are already struggling to make ends meet.
“Associations can make an even bigger impact in local areas by helping tenants source goods and services.”
Housing associations and councils recognise this dilemma, and many help new tenants with practical move-on support or financial help with re-decoration costs, often through voucher schemes.
After all it’s in everyone’s interest to get the tenancy off to a good start and get the property looking good.
Associations can make an even bigger impact in local areas by helping tenants source goods and services from social or environmentally focused organisations.
Take Forest Recycling Project (FRP), a social enterprise based in Waltham Forest (full disclosure – I’m a trustee there). If you’ve heard about the circular economy but wondered what it means in practice, this is it; we collect and re-mix surplus paint, which stops it from going to landfill and contributes to CO2 reduction.
Volunteers and participants in our programmes for local people who are long-term unemployed or have mental health problems develop skills and confidence at our sites.
We sell the paint on to community groups, local businesses and consumers who want an eco-friendly, good quality and affordable way to decorate.
“There are a range of organisations working to transform unwanted items into useful household goods.”
In partnership with housing providers across east London, we offer heavily discounted paint packs to new social tenants so that they can make their new homes look great – and we can ensure our products are reaching the people who need them the most. “I knew I needed to paint my house,” said one of our customers, “but I was on benefits. You know when something is not looking nice, but after painting it you get that sense of ‘wow, it’s lovely’.”
There are a range of organisations working to transform unwanted items into useful household goods.
Our neighbours Bright Sparks fix electrical goods and sell them on for a fair price, as well as keeping items like furniture and crockery out of landfill.
Re-use centres across London not only help reduce waste, but also provide volunteering and employment opportunities to people who might be excluded from the conventional labour market, often supporting creative endeavours like up-cycling, carpentry, community gardens and community art projects, too.
Many modern housing associations are large, commercial organisations, but the homes they manage and the tenants they support are of course fundamentally rooted in local communities.
Although procurement officers tend to partner with big, national chains to help their tenants refurbish and settle in, working with small, local charities can have corporate social responsibility benefits as well as cost savings.
There’s a clear social impact and environmental gain – it just involves looking beyond the usual suspects.
Nicola Hughes, trustee, Forest Recycling Project
