Tenant participation
The Department of Human Services is committed to increasing opportunities for public tenants to contribute to decisions affecting their living environment.
Tenant Participation is a key component of this commitment to improved customer service, providing a framework for tenants to give regular feedback at a local regional level.
This means that we:
- Ask you about decisions that affect your housing and your community
- Encourage tenants from a wide variety of backgrounds and abilities to be part of making these decisions
If you're a public housing tenant, you can:
- Tell us how we can deliver services to meet your needs better. This could include maintenance priorities, health and wellbeing, and safety and security issues
- Inform the planning and management of the services available from the Social Housing Advocacy and Support (SHASP) program
- Help to manage the local community facility or community garden, and plan how it will be used in the future
- Organise community events
- Get involved in developing local activities to meet needs in your community. These could include, for example, recreation activities for older adults or children.
You can do this by:
- Attending local meetings and regional tenant forums
- Joining a local tenants' group or Neighbourhood Renewal group
- Becoming a member of the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA).
We help you get involved by:
- Training you in the skills you need to be involved
- Supporting you to attend regional tenant forums, for example, help with travel costs
- Funding tenant groups to represent local communities
- Facilitating consultation amongst tenants, the Department of Human Services, the VPTA and SHASP providers.
We also help tenants participate by:
- Funding the VPTA to represent tenants' groups all over Victoria
- Providing opportunities for representatives from tenants' groups, regional tenant forums and the VPTA to meet our senior staff
- Funding SHASP providers to support tenants to develop representative tenant groups and assist individual tenant involvement.
For more information, contact your regional tenant participation coordinator or local housing office.
- Tenant participation brochure
The Department of Human Services through the Division of Housing and Community Building is committed to increasing opportunities for public tenants to contribute to decisions affecting their living environment.
- Tenant Participation Coordinators
Contact details for Tenant Participation coordinators.
- Public housing tenant participation framework
Tenant Participation is a key component of the Department of Human Services' commitment to improved customer service providing a framework for tenants to give regular feedback.
- Penington Award for Outstanding Volunteering
The Penington is an annual award presented to a public or community-managed housing tenant or a group of people who are making an outstanding voluntary contribution to their community.
