A feel good story just in time for Christmas| Photo Finish Photography | Sydney Photographer
To start off with, I always cringe at the thought of writing and accordingly, I have always kept my blog posts as short as possible. However, this week's corporate job really touched my heart and I felt I had to share it with you all, so here goes: This week I was super proud to photograph Link Housing's CEO, Andrew McAnulty being awarded Community Sector Banking's 2016 Community Housing Impact Award for Tenancy Management for its "innovative community building strategies that enrich life for tenants and families in community housing in Northern Sydney". The award was handed over by Kieran Turner (State Business Manager) and Ken Langston (Head of Sector Engagement) who have worked long and hard with Andrew to ensure that more affordable rental accommodation could be provided to people on very low to moderate incomes. Link Housing now manages over 1400 homes across Northern Sydney. To read more about this please see the recent media release here.
Before the photo shoot, I must admit I had very limited knowledge or understanding of public or community housing. Any mention of public housing or community housing up to this week would conjure up images of the old red brick Greenway building I saw every morning when catching the bus or train into work in the city back in my corporate days, where old sheets/towels/clothing were hung/pinned to the windows to create a world of privacy for the tenants therein. I imagined the tenants would look somewhat like the homeless guys you sometimes see in Hyde Park who may/ may not smell of urine or be druggies.
How wrong I was when I arrived at the Link Housing residences at West Ryde!!! I actually drove straight past the address on the first go! These big, beautiful, bright, clean and modern apartments are set on a wide, flat street (actually it had dual street access for those apartments at the back) and honestly, it just feels like any apartment in Sydney or a beach holiday apartment somewhere on the Central Coast. Andrew McAnulty explained that Link Housing believes that community housing shouldn't look any different to normal housing and they have definitely stood by their words!
Marie Sillars has been in her new home for 8 months now and couldn't be any happier. Her daughter lives one street away from her and her grandkids live down the street. Thanks to Link Housing, she can afford to be close to her family, live in a beautiful, spacious and modern home and she was overjoyed to show me inside her new home. She's in a 1 bedroom apartment but there are also 2 bedroom apartments on the site. She couldn't wait to show me inside her home!!
Even this snail couldn't resist moving his home into a Link Housing site!
One of the many things I admire about Link Housing is that they have a strong focus on respect for their tenants and a sensitivity to their clients' needs. Link Housing shows accountability and regularly empowers their tenants to provide feedback on the site's operations and conditions, so that Link Housing can regularly measure themselves and act upon delivering the best customer experience, when, due to their financial circumstances, these wonderful people may not have a say in their housing conditions at all.
Another thing I admire is the sense of community they have created here. Everyone is so involved, giving and it definitely feels more like a community than say, living in an apartment in the city, where it's quite insular and I know only my neighbours on either side, a handful of others on other floors and that's it. Here, everyone seems more like friends who live close together and look out for each other. Marie was super excited that she was partaking in the Share the Dignity handbag Christmas campaign and had a beautiful white handbag packed full of necessities to deliver to one of her neighbours in the block whom she felt needed it.
Link Housing have set up a community garden for their tenants, put on community based parties for them and they've recently had the best balcony competition.
Everyone here is home proud and you can tell it by the little things, such as all the little Christmas decorations they've put on the front garden and the way how everything is kept so new, clean and orderly even though this site was built 6 years ago. I was greeted by the most caring and lovely neighbours who all had the biggest smile on their faces upon my arrival.
It felt really good to be here. Probably a little more so than in my inner city apartment. It felt human, a real sense of community and immense joy. My fears of community housing have dissolved and I would be happy to live in a Link Housing abode if the need ever arose!! I'm told there is quite the long waiting list though... must be because they're the best!
Hooray to Link Housing and Community Sector Banking for spreading cheer and joy not only at Christmas but for all those who really need it the most every day of the whole year! Keep up the amazing work!! :)
Please check out their website by clicking on any of the links above as they are such both such meaningful and thoughtful organisations!!
www.photofinishphotography.com.au
0426293388
P.S. I was not paid to write this nor was I asked to write it and I'm sorry it was so long but I just honestly wanted to share this lovely story with you all as seeing all the happiness on the tenants' faces really warmed my heart!
