Housing Choices Australia (HCA) is an independent, national, not-for-profit housing provider that delivers high quality affordable housing for people on low to moderate incomes and for people with disability.
The Problem
In 2021, Housing Choices needed to find a solution to completing safety checks across its Victorian portfolio of around 1,800 properties (currently 2,000+).
They required a partner that was able to do all 3 checks in a single visit, was empathetic to the needs of their residents around disability and mental health, could scale and flex and was highly cost-effective.
Alternatives Considered
Housing Choices carried out a tender process in September 2021.
Alternatives were narrowed to existing smaller contractors who could not scale and did not have the systems, other larger contractors who required multiple visits and were expensive and Taskforce who could complete all checks cost-effectively in a single visit.
The Solution
In October 2021, Taskforce was engaged as the primary provider of all gas, electrical and smoke safety checks in Victoria to comply with the recently introduced Victorian laws.
The following elements were implemented:
- Full job management and messaging portal Interface
- A dedicated, empathetic team for Housing Choices jobs
- An integrated low-cost rectification process to ensure full compliance
- Use of Housing Choices’ specified smoke alarms only
- Full compliance reporting
- Quality control tracking
- Ongoing engagement around strategic initiatives and priorities.
The Results
Taskforce has now completed 2,800 jobs across the portfolio showing:
Empathy
“The Taskforce team have been very professional and respectful in the manner in which they have engaged, addressing any concerns and reassuring residents prior to carrying out the compliance checks.“*
Renter friendliness
“Flexibility of giving renters the option to choose dates/times for compliance checks to suit their needs.”*
Scheduling Reliability
“Being able to complete all safety checks in a single visit has worked really well for the residents, with minimal disruption, reduced admin tasks, and allowed everything to operate smoothly.”*
Value
“Cost was a big factor in our decision, as we are a not-for-profit organisation. Taskforce gave us a good deal, low costs with the ability to do both electrical and gas checks in one visit, which no other service provider was able to provide”.*
The Impact on Housing at Scale
The successful, empathetic safety check partnership with Taskforce is proving to be an enabler for Housing Choices to accelerate portfolio growth by keeping costs down, enabling scaling, lowering risk, allowing management focus and building goodwill across our communities.
