Opening hours:
Christmas and New Year

All of our offices will be closed on end of year the public holidays:

Friday, 25 December
Monday, 28 December
Friday, 1 January

Our standard office hours apply to all other days during the end of year period.

Updates on our service delivery

Maintenance Update

We will be conducting urgent works only during 18 December – 15 January. If you have any questions, please email maintenance@hhs.org.au or call 1300 100 242.

Please note – all calls on public holidays and weekends will be handled by our after-hours call centre.

Property inspections update

We have re-instating physical property inspections, rather than virtual inspections. This is in accordance with the Residential Tenancies Act.

We appreciate your support this year as we have had to change our service delivery during the pandemic and understand that this was disruptive for many of you.

The physical property inspections will be undertaken in a strict COVID-safe manner, ensuring your ongoing safety is prioritised.

These regular property inspections are an opportunity for us to:

catch up with you about tenancy related matters
find out about changes to your household
get feedback on our services
check the condition of your house
provide assistance with reporting any maintenance issues

If you have questions, please contact your Tenancy and Property Manager.

Our COVID-19 response

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, we have taken the following measures to ensure the safety of our staff and tenants:

We also set up a dedicated COVID-19 Hub on our website for information. Visit the hub here.

What the Victorian State Budget means for you

The Victorian State Budget for 2020/21 was announced at the end of November with a big focus on jobs, education, homes, families and health.

What does this mean for you? Well, some of the highlights include:

Jobs Plan – aims to create 400,000 new jobs by 2025
Inclusive education for every young Victorian – upgrades to 39 specialist schools, $1.6 billion investment to transform support for students with disability
Victoria’s Big Housing Build – 12,000 new social and affordable homes to be built by 2025
Mental health support when its needed most – $869 million invested into the mental health system
Extra support for parents and families – free kinder for 2021, support for more outside school hours care

Find out more here

Tenant feedback on the Haven; Home, Safe experience

Earlier this year, we interviewed some of you to find out about your experience as our tenant.

We found:

There were issues with…	So we did this…
Customer service	Rolled out customer service training for all our staff. We hope your experience with us is better in future.
Website not providing information needed	Re-vamped the website to make it clearer, more informative and easier to navigate. You can check it out here: www.havenhomesafe.org.au
Tenant newsletter not being read	Now only provide news on an ad hoc, as-needed basis. This is the first new-look news update. We hope this works better for you.
Need for tailored information for first-time renters	Are nearly ready to launch a free online course which will help. Stay tuned for updates.
Communication and interest in developing a tenant app	We are looking into this as a possibility for the future.

Many thanks to all who participated in this project, it was very useful for us to hear your opinions and experiences as a tenant and we are working on solutions to the points raised.

Our new website

We listened to your feedback about the website and we re-vamped it to make it clearer, easier to navigate and more informative.

Some comments from tenants include:

“I think that is a lot better than the old website, more straightforward and easier language.”

“Overall Love the new website. Easy to direct around & find more specific information or answers using the handy drop-down box option. Easy to read, follow & use. Nice colours too – not too busy or distracting :)”

“It’s really easy to navigate, the links work great and there is a wealth of Information available to suit diverse needs”

We’re all in this together: A story of new friendship

Our hearts were warmed when we heard about this wonderful story of a flourishing friendship between two of our Tram Road residents which developed over the lockdown period.

Below is an excerpt from our tenant, Al Turner’s, fortnightly personal newsletter ‘The Wonder of Words,’ Issue 4, August 2020 which he writes for his fellow neighbours.

“Over and over I had heard the words: ‘We’re all in this together’ without realising the power in that message. Until one day I got into a taxi and the driver recognized my address. It turned out we had been living in the same apartment building for two years and hadn’t met.

We soon got to know each other and began to help one another to ease our way through the lockdown. In return for a couple of small favours, the driver made himself available whenever I needed a taxi, sometimes ‘forgetting’ to turn on the meter.

Now, a couple of months on… we have become friends. Proving that togetherness covers a very broad spectrum. And ‘all’ means everybody.”

Al Turner