My journey into the sector starts with a funny story. I worked at accommodation services all through university, as a Residential Assistant and as a Halls Co-ordinator – a summer job where I managed a team of people to get the halls ready for summer guests and term-time inhabitants. I developed a strong sense of housing justice then. It was incredibly important to me that people got what they paid for in those rooms.
I managed an old block, so it required a lot more care than the new builds. One year, I presented to the Director of Estates and Facilities to petition her for a budget to decorate the rooms and replace the mattresses. People’s homes matter.
When I graduated from my BA in English Literature, I was looking for a full-time job to undertake alongside my Masters in Creative Writing, and I got a call from a recruitment agent. She had a temporary position available in a finance team. I recoiled, saying “I can barely count! I don’t think I’d be good in finance”. The recruiter responded with: “So, you only want to work in housing then?” – as long as it wasn’t maths related!
I ended up landing a job in Cambridge City Council’s housing department as a Housing Assistant. From there, I moved on to its contact centre taking housing queries. I would recommend to anyone that works in housing to spend a day in the customer services team. You learn a lot about the homes and the people living in them, from taking around 100 calls a day.
But really, why I ended up in housing is less important than why I stay in housing. I believe everyone deserves a place that they can call home, and I mean everyone, not just an arbitrary group of people who society has decided are deserving. Social housing stigma is widespread and its curtailing people’s life chances. People living in social housing communities deserve quality homes and services, and they should have a voice in how those services are run. From the very beginning of my housing career, that seemed incredibly obvious to me – and yet there are often barriers to prevent this.
A career in communications and engagement in housing means my team and I can support our colleagues to deliver information to customers in a way that genuinely adds value to their lives – we can’t underestimate how important it is to have the right information to manage your home and tenancy, and thrive in your community. We also get to make sure that when customers spend their valuable time sharing their lived experience of our services, it leads to action, real change and improvement. When we get to do showcase their stories in a creative, fun and engaging way, it really is a win-win for everyone.
Earlier this month, I popped round to see one of our customers who has recently turned 80 years old, and she spoke to me about how social housing had changed her life. She now has four children and seven grandchildren each doing wonderful things – that’s three generations of happy, healthy and successful people who were given a chance at a fulfilling life, all because they had a quality place to live.
During my career, I’ve helped to support on lots of job fairs, employment courses and mentoring schemes and I’ve learned that, generally, people don’t know the depth and breadth of career opportunities they could pursue in housing. I’ve found my home in social housing – delivering communications and engagement that really delivers purpose.
There’s so much variety in the careers people could have if communicating is their bag. During my time in housing, I’ve implemented campaigns at parliament, delivered an internal comms initiative that included a disco lift and hosted celebrity guest speakers for a staff conference. But as anyone in my team will tell you, I’m at my happiest when I’m doing real core services stuff – give me a campaign about rents and service charges, pest control or damp and mould any day of the week. Just don’t make me do maths!
