Lewisham Homes - Annual Report 2019/2020

We are working to create thriving communities.

Places people are proud to call home.

We know we can only do this by constantly improving.

We do our best to help our residents keep their homes

Supporting people to manage their money,
access social security benefits and get advice.

Helping with Universal Credit claims,
running budgeting courses, surgeries and events.

We also helped Lewisham Council provide homes
for people on the housing register,
recovering 103 homes for those in need.

We know antisocial behaviour can
badly affect quality of life

We continue to try new things to support
residents and deal with issues fairly but firmly.

We launched our new noise app, making it easier for residents
to report and track issues.

Residents told us our on-call witness service is important
in tackling anti-social behaviour issues.

We look out for our older residents
in sheltered schemes

We make sure all our staff are trained to spot warning signs of isolation and mental health struggles.

We help our people get online, build new friendships and not be lonely.

137 older residents took part in
social and creative activities
through the year.

And we welcomed special guest speakers at resident events
from Age UK, Stroke Society, Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency and more…

Age UK, Stroke Association & GCDA

We’re proud to be 100% Lewisham

We work with our residents to find ways to
make our communities thrive.

We’re working to fund and deliver community
projects our residents want and need
with our partners across the borough.

Pepys Social Supermarket

This year, with our friends Fareshare, Travis Perkins and London Catalyst,
we opened Pepys Social Supermarket,
our second community store.
We helped more than 130 families on the Pepys estate with weekly food supplies.

FareShare, Travis Perkins & London Catalyst

ChangeMakers

We are empowering, upskilling and improving life chances through our Changemakers programme which supports people with a passion to create positive social change in Lewisham.

Lewisham Homes Academy

This year we launched Lewisham Homes’ Academy –
a one-stop shop for training and employment needs.
With our partners, we also provided training and employment support
for more than 265 residents.

Community Events

Our vibrant community events and initiatives programme ran through the year, from arts and crafts events, community gardening projects, to a summer garden party
attended by more than 500 residents.

The young people of Lewisham are our future

We want to create quality opportunities that help young people achieve their potential and help themselves in life.

More than 970 young people took part in youth projects and events from street dance, to careers support, a BAME women’s fashion project, and so much more.

We value what our residents think

We want as many as possible to have a say and be involved
in shaping our work and our services.

Through the year we heard from nearly 800 residents
– tenants and homeowners –
on our new approach to working together.

We reached out to residents in lots of new and exciting ways
including Facebook Live, online bootcamps and Commonplace.

We kept in touch with all of the latest news which this year included a new online newsletter for our homeowners.

Sadly, social homes remain in short supply across London.
We are proud to be working with Lewisham Council and our residents to build new homes for those in need.

But we aren’t just building houses.
We are working to build thriving communities and quality of life…
places people can be proud to call home.

We are excited that this year residents on the
Achilles Estate in New Cross

Voted Yes

to the regeneration of their estate.

Across Lewisham we started building
44 new homes and put 277 more at various stages
of the planning process.

We want to be the best landlord,
from the services we provide, to the quality of our
residents’ homes and environments.

Through the year we spent £39m improving
properties for our residents because we care.

We went the extra mile for our homeowners

Where we needed to make improvements to homes and buildings we did so while always being mindful of costs.

We created more opportunities for people to have a say and be involved, from start to finish.

Working more sustainably and improving environments

We are planting wild flower meadows providing green spaces for our residents and homes for our bees.

We keep our estates clean – inside and out – and maintain communal gardens to the highest standards.

Keeping our residents safe is our top priority

We thank all our residents who followed our clear corridors policy, helping to keep corridors fire safe and free from obstruction.

We appreciate feedback we’ve had from our residents this year
on the important topic of fire safety.

We thank our residents at Hatfield Close and Gerrard House in New Cross and our friends United Living and Michael Dyson Associates
for working with us through the year on a
big project to improve fire safety there.

We were delighted to be awarded £9m from the
government to help fund the work.

At Lewisham Homes we value our people

We are committed to celebrating and championing equality
and diversity. We are proud our staff represent the
richness of the communities we serve.
This is one of our strengths.

At a time when inequalities in society are impossible to ignore
unity is more important than ever.

Through the year we were proud to join with organisations
across the sector and the UK to celebrate important national
campaigns including:

Black History Month
International Day for People with Disabilities
LGBTQ+ history month
Holocaust memorial day

We work to recruit and retain great people
because the better our people are
the better our services for our residents.

At the end of the year we faced unprecedented times

We saw more residents struggling to pay their rent
through the coronavirus pandemic.

We worked hard to support people, helping residents to
access social security benefits and advice.

We contacted 6,000 potentially vulnerable residents to offer help through this difficult time.

We helped:
372 residents with food support 167 residents with income support 120 residents with emergency repairs 134 residents with befriending requests

And we continue to support those who need us

We also moved fast to protect the safety of our staff and residents while delivering our essential services.

We are so proud of our frontline workers – repairs operatives, gardeners, caretakers, hostels and sheltered scheme staff –
who all went the extra mile to deliver services for our residents through tough times.

Exciting times are ahead as we work to grow
stronger than ever for our residents and the
vibrant communities of Lewisham.

Finally, we want to say

A Big Thank You

to our many partners in Lewisham and beyond
who helped make our work possible this year and to
our residents who are at the heart of everything we do.

Find out more about Lewisham Homes