Friendship piloting new tenant surgery scheme » Housing » 24dash.com

At the request of tenants, Friendship Care and Housing (Friendship) are getting out into the community, piloting a new tenant surgery scheme.

The first surgery was held recently in the Northfield area of Birmingham. Housing officers from Friendship were on hand to answer tenants’ questions relating to local, tenancy, estate, rent and repair issues. Margaret Weekes from Optima also joined the surgery offering independent money advice and information on winter fuel payments.

Senior Housing Officer, Sylvia Christian said ‘We will work hard for the scheme to gain momentum. This is great way for our tenants to meet up with us, put their queries to the Housing Officers and for us to address their concerns by offering practical advice and information”.

Friendship are looking to role the tenant surgeries out into other neighbourhoods. In larger areas they would like to extend the scope of the scheme by inviting Friendship’s loan shark team, staff from HR and to get other agencies involved eg: Job Centre Plus, Independent debt advisors and Credit Unions.