AI 2018 Business Excellence Awards

Acquisition International - 2018 Business Excellence Awards 11 BE180056 Housing Association of the Year - Dublin Circle Voluntary Housing Association Established in 2003 to provide high quality social and affordable housing to families and individuals in the Dublin area. Today Circle VHA proudly assists people and families across more than 1,700 homes, providing housing to approved applicants on local authority housing waiting lists. It also provides facilities management services. John provides us with an insight into the association’s work and explores how far it has come since inception. “As an Approved Housing Body, here at Circle VHA we work with some of the most vulnerable people in our society, people who are homeless, people who are struggling to find affordable housing and people who have been the victim of abuse or violence. We have been in operation for 14 years and the previous CEO Justin O’Brien, who retired in October 2017, after 14 years, set the organisation up by himself and the voluntary Board that we had at the time. “Over the years we have grown to own and manage more than 1,700 homes across Dublin and the surrounding counties. We provide development and housing solutions for Local Authorities and the Government, on a not for profit basis and we support more than 3,000 people living in our communities. We employ 34 people, based in Dublin, and aim to grow by more than double our current size over the coming three years. Typically, we support people in housing need with the provision of excellent housing and housing supports.” With over 28 years’ experience across both the private and public sectors, John is in a unique position to offer insight into the housing industry in Ireland currently, and he is happy to share his knowledge with us as he explores the challenges that his organisation faces and how it is working to overcome them. “Over the last 12 months our industry has seen a growth in the importance, both politically (housing being one of the top priority areas for all political parties) and in terms of its delivery of new and sustainable housing and communities. Homelessness is one of the very difficult areas for our society and one which we are at the forefront of tackling. Funding for our services and for future housing provision has been a constant difficulty and one which took a further blow with the reclassification of our services by Eurostat and the CSO. This threatens the scale of housing provision that is required to meet the needs of the state.” “Despite this, a significant level of funding is being made available to the private, for profit sector despite that the money could generate greater returns if better distributed to the Approved Housing Sector where monies are recycled into the provision of more social housing and the security of tenure is better protected for the tenant and resident. AHBs provide housing for life, not for as long as it makes a profit. Government, and the other political parties, have seen and confirmed that our sector is more efficient, better value for money and better able to provide and manage social housing. Our sector, as this award demonstrates, works well in partnership with Local Authorities and the private sector, now both of the other sectors need to acknowledge this and make provision for that partnership working.” In order to ensure that it builds upon this success and is able to overcome the vast challenges it faces, moving forward Circle VHA will be undergoing a number of changes which John proudly outlines in his final comments. “Looking ahead, at Circle VHA we have an exciting change plan in place and being delivered. We intend to grow by at least double our size in the next three years. We are currently going through a restructure of our organisation to ensure that we are resourced fully for the future growth and development of our services. In the last four months we have recruited for seven new posts and will be seeking a further four new staff to join our team over the coming three months. The determination of our Board, the Management Team and each member of our staff is reflected on our strategic plan. We have a drive and a vision of what we are and what we can do, and as such it is great to be part of this team.” Circle Voluntary Housing Association (Circle VHA) is a Housing Finance Agency certified housing association supporting a wide range of service users. We spoke to John Hannigan to learn more about the organisation and the vital work it undertakes. Company: Circle Voluntary Housing Association Contact: John Hannigan Address: Phoenix House, 32-34 Castle St, Dublin, Ireland Phone: 00353 1 407 2110 Web Address: www.circlevha.ie