HASHTA Hacked by Southern Housing

Andrea Cowhig, Treasurer of Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association (HASHTA) recalls how the tenants’ association started, discusses Southern Housing’s ongoing miscommunications and contradictions, and recounts her battle with damp and mould.

So, my journey first started when I saw Southern Housing Action which was an online community for tenants of Southern Housing that have had issues and struggles. It gave them a way to support each other, a place to go and talk, to feel they are not alone. 

But my first encounter hearing about the people in my local community was when Maya Evans (then local Councillor for Hollingon Ward) and Grace Lally (Badass Housing Activist) knocked on mine and my mother’s door in March of 2024. 

They were enquiring about damp, mould and disrepair of Southern Housing properties in the Hollington area. 

They asked me if we had any damp and mould in our flat to which I laughed and said ‘Yes, loads of it. Would you like to come in and see it’ and flung the door open.

Which was to my mum’s horror as she never likes anyone coming into our flat, even friends or family. Due to the damp and mould, the smell alone just hits you when you walk in! 

It’s been a living hell

Everything has to be washed and cleaned constantly. Also, the air quality has been awful which has really affected and made my mum’s COPD deteriorate. 

So, as you can imagine my mum is very proud and was horrified when I flung open the door and invited in virtual strangers. But I thought, hey these people are trying to help, let them, let’s work together. Enough is enough. We cannot live like this anymore; it’s killing me and my mum.

The state of the flat and getting nowhere with Southern Housing has/is really affected my mental health and had caused me suicidal thoughts and a couple of near misses. So, I thought if these ladies wanted to help, well then, I needed it. We couldn’t cope on our own.

So, moving on from this a few weeks later in April there was a Zoom call which I attended at the Tilkin Community Centre with some other tenants, where Paul Hackett (the head of Southern Housing) and some of the Heads of Departments (HODs) laid out facts and figures of the coming months and years and their promises to tenants.

After this we decided to raise awareness of the Southern Housing Action online group, and also for our petition for Paul Hackett to meet with tenants in person.

Me and another couple of tenants went down to the seafront with a banner and some sign-up sheets and flyers and the all-important petition. We got some great awareness for the cause and some signatures on the day.

A few weeks later we did the same outside Asda and had a great response and had a piece in the local newspaper. After this Maya arranged for some HOD’s to come down to some properties in Hollington, but again no Paul Hackett.

Enough is enough

So, we had another meeting and decided enough was enough, why is Paul Hackett hiding from his tenants? We decided to protest. We decided to hold the protest at the Four Courts (pictured above). I chaired the event and spoke and I asked for the tenants to tell their stories, if they were happy to, and explain why they were unhappy and what it was they were protesting for, what they wanted from Southern Housing. The big word that came out of this was RESPECT.

Southern Housing found out about our peaceful protest before it was due to happen, as we shared the details online. They decided to remove ALL staff from all four buildings, including support staff and cleaners for the whole day, and put a poster up explaining this was due to our protest. Even though our protest was outside, nowhere near their staff, and was not a threat to anyone!

Following on from the protest – #onevoice, #strongertogether – we were just thinking where do we go from this? We are definitely stronger together fighting this cause as a group than individually on our own. 

I had spoken at a film screening a few weeks earlier about tenants in other areas campaigning against Damp and Mould and I started to think – what if we started our own Tenants’ Association? Then we’d have an independent voice but we would be able to liaise with SH about what’s not working, and work together to create solutions rather than going around in circles. And also, a tenants’ association is not a panel who SH has cherry picked, but the independent voice of tenants that want to be heard.

So, after another tenants’ strategy meeting we decided on a launch date in Sept 2024 – a Family Fun Day with activities, music and food. We also organised a raffle to raise a little money for the start-up of HASHTA and got a small grant from Hastings Voluntary Action. 

Prior to the Launch, Simon Lee, who became the HASHTA secretary, contacted Southern Housing to confirm they were happy with the setting up of a Tenants Association for Hastings. They agreed and also offered to support us by funding us with a grant of £250 yearly.

A group of tenants had a good meeting with the Resident Involvement officer where they discussed the use of Four Courts community centre for the purpose of holding HASHTA’s monthly meetings, and the potential of using other community centres that are owned by SH. Also other things were discussed about improvements to parks and social spaces.

The Launch was a great success with over 90 people (not counting all the children!) attending. After all the fun and games were had, all the adults sat down in groups of six-seven and discussed what problems they had with their properties, and what they would like to see from their Housing Association and their Tenants Association. After this, one member from each group gave their answers and we collated them on a big board all together. We saw some common themes: damp, mould, disrepair, bad communication, lack of empathy, disrespect, constantly having to repeat yourself when calling up, bad communication between SH staff and contractors. This is to name just a few.

A local councillor, Helen Kay, put our constitution to a vote which formally established us, and then we held a vote for the secretary, chair, vice-chair, treasurer and vice-treasurer, and all the people who wanted to be on the committee.

“Residents at the heart of all we do”

Now this all sounds above board to me. And we followed every letter of the law, dotted every I and crossed every T. However now, six months later, we have received an email from Southern Housing stating that they do not recognise HASHTA as a Tenants Association, even though we asked if they were happy for us to do so prior to the launch and they agreed. They also stated that they are not willing to meet with us monthly to discuss our monthly minutes, nor will they allow any of their staff to attend our meetings. Very small minded if you ask me, and more than a bit strange for a company that says they operate “with residents at the heart of all we do”. . 

I recently spoke to Vanessa Bidiss, the regional manager of Southern Housing, who said to me that SH were not willing to liaise with HASHTA and that none of their representatives would be attending any of our meetings because they want to deal with tenants individually.

I explained to her that if only SH would allow a member from the Damp and Mould team, for example, to attend a HASHTA meeting, it would be an opportunity for them to be in a room with a big group of tenants at one time and change (potentially) their perception of SH staff, especially in this fragile time they are having when SH’s reputation is really not great. Their communication is awful with their tenants and they should be doing everything they can to improve this – and they said they wanted to, back in their zoom call in April last year. 

However, it only seems they want to do this on their terms, not the tenants’. When they can cherry pick the tenants who will sit on their panel, and who they have pre interviewed. 

That is why we wanted a Tenants Association in the first place, it’s an independent voice. We have our own rights as well. 

All we are asking for is to have a monthly meeting with a Head of Department of SH, to pass on the information from our tenants, to go through the processes of what has arisen from our meetings, and talk about what is working and what is not. We want to work together to make solutions, not more problems. We are offering free labour effectively, what company doesn’t love that? Having people auditing your staff and contractors for you, collating the information and passing it back. And all we ask in return is an hour or two of your time a month.

Safe to say the SH stance on HASHTA has not changed so far. Which in my view is a bad choice. They say they want to improve relationships with tenants, this is not the way to go about it.