Communities

community development
Building
community in new
social housing
The process of building a harmonious and
supportive community in any setting is a
challenge. in the inner city the task can be
even harder, writes René McKenzie-Low.
Successful community building always
begins with the people as the
focus. It is an organic process which
requires understanding the people
around you, their needs, wants, passions
and what they want to gain from
the place in which they live.
Any organisation must understand
what emotionally motivates people,
in order to understand how to create
something they feel connected to, and
driven by, for them to make a positive
contribution.
This can be even more important
in the realm of social housing. Often
misunderstood, social housing and
its tenants find that social stigma
can act as a barrier to them forming
meaningful relationships with other
people who live in the community. In
my experience, successful community
events and projects are a fantastic
way of helping people overcome these
misconceptions as they demonstrate
the common interests they all share.
Meaningfully connecting with
tenants can be a constant struggle for
housing organisations because many
of its residents have seen staff come
and go, promising the world and then
not delivering on those promises.
So how do you overcome this? It just
takes time and trust. While it seems
obvious, organisations must invest
heavily in the time it takes to connect
with residents in order to build trust.
City West Housing has made a
conscious effort to do this by investing
resources in its ‘Place Making Initiative’,
which has been designed around
the community at its latest development,
The Platform Apartments, in
North Eveleigh, Sydney.
City West aims to ensure it is creating
sustainable and successful communities.
The Place Making Initiative was
specifically designed to foster a group
of residents that respects, values
and helps enhance each other. This
is partly about utilising and valuing
tenants’ skills, experience, potential,
local knowledge, culture and
resources; so that the community can
be improved by their involvement.
The success of the community development
within The Platform Apartments
started with a Housewarming
Celebration when the building opened.
It acted as a great way for the residents
to get to know one another and begin
to organically build relationships. It
also provided a basis for conversations
about other things people might like
to do together.
This leads to tenant-led projects
such as the ‘Community Garden
14 Inner Sydney Voice • Summer 2015/16 • www.innersydneyvoice.org.au