Communities
ISV_Summer2016_web
ISV_Summer2016_web
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community development<br />
Inner West Tenant Group<br />
Bringing tenants<br />
together<br />
The Inner West Tenant Group (IWTG)<br />
was formed as a result of grassroots<br />
community development Initiated by Rozelle<br />
Neighbourhood Centre. Susan Hawkeswood<br />
and Lisa Smajlov explain how it came about and<br />
what tenants working together are achieving.<br />
From 2008, Rozelle Neighbourhood<br />
Centre partnered with Housing<br />
NSW to deliver a monthly outreach<br />
program attended by 4-10 clients each<br />
month. The community setting allowed<br />
tenants to access non-housing<br />
related support. The outreach program<br />
ceased in 2010 when a weekly outreach<br />
program commenced at Leichhardt<br />
Centrelink. However, tenants continued<br />
to attend the Rozelle Neighbourhood<br />
Centre but it did not have the capacity<br />
to work one on one with social<br />
housing tenants. The Centre identified<br />
a need to bring tenants together to<br />
work collectively. In August 2011, public<br />
housing tenants were invited to attend<br />
an open forum.<br />
Now, drawn from public and community<br />
housing tenants, IWTG members<br />
are not just focused on maintenance<br />
but create opportunities for tenants<br />
to increase their individual and group<br />
capacity to be agents of change. Stakeholders<br />
from local organisations and<br />
government agencies are represented.<br />
During the past four years, representatives<br />
of Inner Sydney Regional Council<br />
for Social Development, St Vincent<br />
de Paul, Partners in Recovery, Leichhardt<br />
Municipal Council and the Local<br />
Member have regularly attended.<br />
Members of IWTG are seen as activists<br />
and leaders in the community,<br />
working beside local and state government<br />
to be a voice for tenant issues.<br />
The IWTG provides opportunities for<br />
tenants to build skills and capacity<br />
through coordinating:<br />
• Fundraising activities and applying<br />
for grants to fund projects<br />
• Garage sales to encourage tenants to<br />
de-clutter and promote the group to<br />
the wider community<br />
• Monthly meetings<br />
• Open forums<br />
• Mental health awareness activities<br />
• Workshops to contribute to Housing<br />
NSW policy submissions<br />
• Social Housing Stories, a writing<br />
and publishing project<br />
IWTG responds to the demographic<br />
of the Leichhardt LGA where 1,105<br />
tenants live in social housing.<br />
At 4.1% of the population, social housing<br />
tenants are hidden in the overall<br />
image of the Leichhardt area’s gentrification.<br />
Tenants are generally scattered<br />
across the area in small pockets,<br />
lacking connections with their more<br />
affluent immediate neighbours and<br />
are geographically disconnected from<br />
other social housing tenants throughout<br />
the LGA.<br />
8 Inner Sydney Voice • Summer 2015/16 • www.innersydneyvoice.org.au