OVERVIEW

Our strategic direction 2018–21

  • Strategic direction 1—Consolidate and deepen our footprint.

  • Strategic direction 2—Maximise social impact through neighbourhood planning and customer-driven services.

  • Strategic direction 3—Deliver value for money through a thriving organisation.

Our strategic intent to 2025

We have developed a longer-term strategic intent that sets future growth ambitions and targets, while continuing to centre around social impact and thriving operations.

Our structure

Our Structure

Note: Due to Hume’s expansion into the Hunter region of NSW, we will undertake a whole-of-organisation redesign, which will be implemented from 1 October 2019.

Hume employee and customer

OUR JOURNEY

THE HOUSING CONTINUUM

The ‘housing continuum’ concept is used by policy makers to consider the broad range of responses available to help a range of households in different tenures to access affordable and appropriate housing.

The concept enables policy makers to move away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy of providing public housing, towards ‘the range of housing options available to different households on a continuum.’1

Hume is committed to providing a range of housing options for our customers. We help them move through the Housing Continuum without assuming that social housing is an inevitable long-term destination.

OUR STRATEGY IS TO DELIVER OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR CUSTOMERS TO PROSPER BY ENABLING CHOICE IN THEIR HOUSING SOLUTION.

1. 2017, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Understanding the housing continuum, https://www.ahuri.edu.au/policy/ahuri-briefs/understanding-the-housing-continuum, viewed August 2019.

Temporary Accommodation Program (Transitional housing)

Housing Independence Program (Transitional housing)

Social housing

Affordable housing

Shared equity

Private rental

Home ownership

OUR PORTFOLIO

We manage a range of property types.

IN 2018–19:

10 ALBURY CITY COUNCIL
1 EDWARD RIVER COUNCIL
26 BLACKTOWN CITY COUNCIL
12 CENTRAL COAST COUNCIL
5 CAMDEN COUNCIL
85 CAMPBELLTOWN CITY COUNCIL
105 CANTERBURY–BANKSTOWN COUNCIL
3 BLUE MOUNTAINS CITY COUNCIL
233 CITY OF PARRAMATTA
7 CITY OF WAGGA WAGGA
208 CUMBERLAND COUNCIL
675 FAIRFIELD CITY COUNCIL
16 GEORGES RIVER COUNCIL
1 CITY OF CANADA BAY COUNCIL
2 COOTAMUNDRA–GUNDAGAI REGIONAL COUNCIL
4 GRIFFITH CITY COUNCIL
20 INNER WEST COUNCIL
523 LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL
11 PENRITH CITY COUNCIL
10 THE HILLS SHIRE COUNCIL
1 WINGECARRIBEE SHIRE COUNCIL
14 WOLLONGONG CITY COUNCIL
1 HAWKESBURY CITY COUNCIL

Note: From 2 September 2019, we will take on more than 2,200 properties in the Maitland and Port Stephens LGAs under the NSW Government’s Social Housing Management Transfer program.

AT 30 JUNE 2019:

0
PROPERTIES IN TOTAL
0
NEW HOMES DELIVERED
0
SDA PROPERTIES
0
DUPLEX–STYLE HOMES
0
BOARDING HOUSES
0
TOWNHOUSES
0
COTTAGES
0
UNITS
0
HOUSES
0
VILLAS
0
CRISIS REFUGES
0
FEE–FOR–SERVICE PROPERTIES
0
STUDIO BEDSITS

OUR CUSTOMERS

At Hume, we value our customers and respect their diversity.

Recognising and understanding the needs of our customers helps us to offer safe, secure and sustainable housing, giving them an opportunity to prosper. We know that vibrant, connected communities could not be created without the input of our customers, so meaningful engagement is vital for us to deliver a customer-centred experience that meets their needs and expectations.

Hume has a suite of customer engagement mechanisms, like our Tenants’ Voice forums, through which our customers can inform our policy making and decision-making processes. They have actively participated and helped to create and influence communities that they are proud to be part of. Hume is committed to our customers and to living our values. We are here to get results; creating and providing wide-ranging housing options and services to improve housing security and reduce homelessness.

AT 30 JUNE 2019:

0
CUSTOMERS IN TOTAL
0
NEW CUSTOMERS
0%
OF CUSTOMERS ARE ABORIGINAL OR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
0+
AT 2 SEPTEMBER 2019, WE WILL WELCOME AN ADDITIONAL 4000+ NEW HUNTER REGION CUSTOMERS

Below are breakdowns of our customer base.

Ages of our customers
Household size of our customers
Gender of our customers

Note: Percentages have been rounded.

First languages of our customers
Length of tenancy of existing customers

The decreasing proportion of length of tenancy for our existing customers suggests that our customers move through the housing continuum when able, and utilise our services for the period that they need it.

Employment status of our customers

Note: Percentages have been rounded.

Delivering our services

In 2018–19, Hume has continued to deliver services that place our customers and their aspirations at the centre of each of our programs. Our specialist tenancy and asset management teams take a ‘housing-first’ approach, providing safe, secure and sustainable housing in the first instance. We then provide our customers with advice and assistance to determine their housing options and to maximise their opportunities to prosper. Our person-centered and strength-based support services enable goal setting and choices for our customers, both socially and economically. A summary of our services is provided in the table below.

A summary of Hume’s services

Summary of Hume services

Benchmarking our services

Benchmarking our services ensures that we deliver a social and economic return on investment for customers, investors and government. We benchmark our services against standards provided by the National Regulator for Community Housing and the Community Housing Industry Association NSW House Keys program. We take a balanced approach by measuring our performance across our programs, our processes, our financials, and how engaged our people are. Most importantly, we measure how satisfied our customers are with the homes we provide and manage, and the services we deliver. For further information, click here.

Key financial scores

Hume Community Housing achieved a strong financial result in 2018–19, exceeding our performance targets. We are continuing to invest in our capacity to deliver housing and services while maintaining a strong financial base for our planned growth in the coming year.

The table below outlines our key financial results from the year.

Hume’s key financial results

Hume's key financial results

GROWTH FORECAST TO 2025

The September 2019 transfer of more than 2,200 homes and more than 4,000 customers to Hume under the NSW Government’s Social Housing Management Transfer program will in effect double our portfolio of properties and customers. We have concentrated on becoming business-ready for this growth during 2018–19. For more information, click here.

Hume has established an ambitious growth target for 2025. It is anticipated that this target will be achieved through a variety of strategies, including increasing our construction program, expanding our tenancy and property management services though tender opportunities facilitated by government and non-government sectors, and providing fee-for-service tenancy and property management services.

Hume's Chairman and CEO - Robert and Nicola

Welcome to the Hume Community Housing Annual Report 2019. As your Board Chairman and CEO, we are pleased to present the annual report to our Members, customers, partners, stakeholders and employees.

The year in review

During the year, we implemented our Strategic Plan 2018–21. Our objectives are focused on maximising social impact through customer-driven services and the consolidation and deepening of our footprint, as well as delivering value for money through a thriving organisation.

Part of this strategy is consolidating our property portfolio and customer base in the Hunter region of NSW. We have dedicated 2018–19 to ensuring we are business-ready for the transfer of more than 2,200 homes and more than 4,000 customers to Hume from the NSW Government. Hume received the largest Australian transfer of public housing to a community housing provider under the Social Housing Management Transfer (SHMT) program. We were selected following a rigorous evaluation of our capability and capacity to deliver high quality services and demonstrated life changing results for social housing customers.

Hume, along with other community housing providers, can deliver tangible solutions to address Australia’s housing crisis. We have the sophistication to run our business commercially, whilst driving positive social outcomes. We’re confident Hume’s performance under this program will further reinforce how much community housing providers can achieve, as well as the benefits that can be delivered through a property transfer program.

Our Hunter project delivery team has worked exceptionally hard in the past year to support and deliver this exciting next chapter in Hume’s history, which begins with the opening of our Maitland office on 2 September 2019, followed by our Raymond Terrace office later in the year.

Our employees are contributing to the delivery of the SHMT program and simultaneously delivering business as usual services. It has been imperative that our growth does not come at the cost of diminished services to our existing customers. We are pleased that we have been able to deliver both growth and ongoing high performance.

Continuous improvement in customer service
The expansion of our business in the Hunter region created a pivotal opportunity for us to refine our practices and make significant improvements. To support our customers to achieve life-changing results, we need a structured, consistent approach to how we deliver support coordination across Hume—one that was scalable and replicable to accommodate further growth. Our people and culture at Hume are central to our success and growth. While we are expanding, we have continued our #ONEHUME message to ensure we remain an integrated organisation across our metropolitan and regional bases.

Throughout our expansion, we identified continuous improvement opportunities that would benefit the entire organisation. These included major IT and system improvements, as well as designing new frameworks to deliver improved customer service, performance and reporting.

Our expansion into the Hunter region brings both challenges and opportunities, and Hume has laid solid foundations for success. We will continue to apply our value for money approach to ensure long-term social and economic return on investment for customers, investors and government. Hume’s growth will allow us to achieve a predicted 30% productivity gain whilst increasing social outcomes.

Our business and operating environment
Our external operating environment continues to be exciting. During the year, there was stronger demand for affordable and social housing that rose faster than supply could match. The demand from the affordable housing market and growth of our fee-for-service offerings have created different service models and approaches, such as diversification into the project management of development and construction projects, for example, for the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (click here for further information).

Housing providers are required to demonstrate how their programs and services support people to prosper. This is achieved by supporting the transition from social housing into affordable housing to private rental and home ownership through employment and training initiatives. Governments expect demonstrable social impact in return for their investment, and we are further developing our ability to accurately report on the returns delivered through our programs. Our Board considers this to be key to Hume’s ongoing success.

During the year, our competition continued to increase, and our competitors are savvy, utilising resources like benchmarking models from international reviews to win projects. Hume is poised to take a position at the forefront of the community housing sector. The successful delivery of our Hunter region expansion will be an example of what we are capable of.

In January 2019, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) made its first board–approved finance commitment of $35 million to Hume. We will use the loan finance to support our ongoing operations providing affordable homes and services to more than 9,000 customers. The finance represents an important milestone not only for Hume but for the entire community housing sector, which will benefit from access to lower-priced finance and greater certainty in terms of future financing costs and tenure.

Outlook for 2019–20
We look to the coming year with great anticipation as Hume continues to grow. The opening of our office in Maitland will be a significant milestone for community housing in Australia. We would like to acknowledge the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and the Land and Housing Corporation, who we continue to work with to deliver a smooth transition for our new customers.

Hume’s strategic intent is to increase the supply of a variety of social and affordable housing products. We intend to do this through our construction and development team, and through our partnerships with local developers, builders, councils and financiers. Expect to see a lot more from us in this space as we seek to provide housing options to address the needs of the communities within which we operate.

Hume has ambitious growth plans, and we believe that the SHMT project demonstrates our appetite and capacity to continue growing. Our 30-year history, expertise and skills stand us in good stead. We believe Hume will lead the way in increasing the supply of much-needed housing and social support for Australians—for many decades to come.

Since we were founded, Hume’s ethos has been centred on creating choice for our customers. In that time, we have proven ourselves to be a safe pair of hands, delivering quality tenancy and property management services. We also work with our customers to build resilience in ways that are meaningful to them and aligned with how they aspire to live their lives.

In closing, we would like to thank our customers for their contributions to our policies, processes and programs throughout the year. We also acknowledge the assistance of our more than 50 service partners who we work with to deliver our wrap-around services that help our customers to realise their goals. And lastly, we extend sincere thanks to Hume’s employees, without whom we would be unable to be the thriving organisation to which, we are so proud to belong.

Signature of Nicola Lemon

Nicola Lemon
CEO, Hume Community Housing

Signature of Robert Vine

Robert Vine
Chair, Hume Community Housing

THE AUSTRALIAN HOUSING ENVIRONMENT

IN 2018:

116000
AUSTRALIANS ARE HOMELESS ON ANY GIVEN NIGHT
42%
ARE FEMALE
37%
OF AUSTRALIA’S HOMELESS ARE UNDER 25 YEARS
49%
INCREASE IN PEOPLE AGED 55 YEARS AND OVER EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN THE PAST 10 YEARS
93%
SLEEP IN TENTS, SEVERELY OVERCROWDED DWELLINGS, OR IN SPECIALIST HOMELESSNESS ACCOMMODATION
AROUND
785000

AUSTRALIANS ARE LIVING IN AROUND 419,000 SOCIAL HOUSING DWELLINGS
AROUND
195000

AUSTRALIANS ARE ON THE WAITING LIST FOR SOCIAL HOUSING
1 IN 10
SOCIAL HOUSING HOUSEHOLDS ARE INDIGENOUS
4 IN 10
SOCIAL HOUSING HOUSEHOLDS HAVE ONE OR MORE MEMBERS WITH A DISABILITY
Australian houses cost 15 times above national average

References: Council to Homeless Persons, https://chp.org.au viewed September 2019.

Customer Spotlight - Samuel's Story

Hume is committed to working with families to break out of generational disadvantage. Samuel grew up in social housing and has overcome many challenges. Today, the single father rents in the private market and is creating a secure, happy home life for his young family.

Samuel describes his marriage breakdown as one of the lowest points of his life. The father had to move with his three children to his parents’ home, where overcrowding forced him to look for an alternative. He was linked with Uniting’s Doorways for Men with Families program and was referred to Hume Community Housing. Two-and-a-half weeks later, he and his family moved into a Hume-managed rental home in South West Sydney.

Hume’s Housing Independence Officer Sedina worked closely with Samuel, connecting him to support services and ensuring his family’s wellbeing during their time within the program.

“Hume put me onto a few different services. We were connected to a food hamper service and at Christmas time, they told me that the local church was giving out presents for the kids. If there was ever a problem, I could always call Hume,” he said.

As part of his new community, Samuel began fixing pre-loved bikes for the neighbourhood children to use and repairing old lawn mowers so neighbours could maintain their gardens. He said, “I got all the bikes off the rubbish piles and fixed them up—every kid in our street had a bike by the end of it and they were all happy. Somebody was throwing out a lawn mower, so I fixed it and before long everybody in the street was using it. We were all getting out there, picking up the rubbish. We interacted more as a community and we became friends. Even men in the street stepped in to support one another if they needed it.”

After five months on the Housing Independence Program, and a stable rental track record, Samuel secured a private rental tenancy closer to his extended family. “With Hume’s help, I started saving for the first time in a very long while. That’s been so good knowing I have something behind me and can look after the kids if they need anything for school or just for us to go out occasionally as a family,” he said.

We are builders of resilience

“Hume was incredible. They always called in to see me. They cared. Even when we were moving, they helped with the timing of my rental payments. Hume made it easier for me because they wanted me to succeed,” he said.

Now, Samuel and his children live in a comfortable private rental just streets away from his parents. He is considering his career options and is keen to get back to work, something he misses since giving up work to care for his young children.

“To be honest, I was stuffed before coming to Hume. My kids are happy and settled and we’re doing more family-oriented stuff now. Hume helped me to get my life back,” Samuel said.

Contact Us

  • Fairfield
    7 Hamilton Road, Fairfield
    NSW 2165
  • Parramatta
    Level 4, 79 George Street, Parramatta
    NSW 2150
  • Claymore
    2 Glenroy Drive, Claymore
    NSW 2559
  • Maitland
    464 High Street, Maitland
    NSW 2320
  • Raymond Terrace
    46 William Street, Raymond Terrace
    NSW 2324

Note: Maitland open from 2 September 2019 and Raymond Terrace to open later in 2019.