Housing Services Returns to the Council
10 November 2005 -
Sentinel Housing Association and Hart District Council have agreed that the housing advice, homelessness and lettings services should in future be provided from the Hart District Council Offices.
Sentinel Housing Association (formerly Hart Housing Association) has provided the service for the Council for eleven years, ever since all Council Homes were transferred to the Association. The new arrangement will allow the Council to develop the service to meet changing needs more easily and enables Sentinel Housing Association to concentrate on its services to tenants and leaseholders. There will be closer links with the Housing Benefit Department which will make the service more accessible for residents. It is planned that all staff concerned will transfer between the organisations and that these changes will be completed by January 2006.
The two organisations will work very closely together, not just in making homes available, but in jointly developing new services.
Hart Housing Association Chair, Dick Wylie, says "Everybody wins by this change in service provision - people in need of housing, the Council and the Housing Association."
Councillor Susan Band, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Health and Housing, said “The Council is grateful to Sentinel Housing Association for the valuable service it has provided on our behalf of Hart residents for over a decade. By bringing these services under the same roof as Housing Benefits and our other housing functions, we can provide a better customer service at one location.”
From 30th January, all enquiries about re-housing and requests for help from people facing homelessness in the District will be dealt with at the main Council Offices in Fleet; whether they are made by personal visits, e-mails to housing@hart.gov.uk, correspondence or phone calls on our housing direct line 01252 774420.
Ensuring equality of opportunity and recognising diversity for all our customers, treating everyone fairly and without discriminaton