How do Housing Associations benefit their local communities?
As well as providing access to good homes, the Voluntary Housing Movement also benefits the community in the following ways: • by bringing people together for a positive social purpose the housing association movement is contributing to self-help and community cohesion • to achieve their aims while remaining solvent housing associations must be run in a business-like manner. They are important social enterprises – seeking development opportunities, managing risk and making surpluses for community benefit, not individual profit • since they are independent of government and not driven by the demands of profit-seeking shareholders, housing associations can sometimes offer more flexible or creative solutions than other types of organisation. The mixing of public and private finance is an important example of such flexibility How are Housing Associations funded? Assistance from the public purse was very limited until 1976, when the Housing (NI) Order became law. It offered substantial subs
