Chairman report

PAUL HOWLETT

The 2021–2022 financial year has been a period in which Evolve Housing has seized upon opportunities to grow and provide even higher quality housing services to our clients despite operating in an exceptionally challenging context.

Like almost every other business in Australia, Evolve Housing faced immense business continuity challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly the Sydney lockdown in 2021.

This environment was difficult for all of us; however, it brings me immense pride to say that due to a fantastic effort from our staff, tenants and our key suppliers, we were able to keep operating and providing excellent support to our clients.

As well as continuing to offer high-quality homes and support to our existing tenant group of more than 10,000 people, throughout the 2021–22 financial year, we have been able to expand our reach further.

We have embarked on the exciting journey of entering into the Victorian community housing market, with the creation of a new entity, Evolve Housing Vic Limited.

We are also delighted to share that Chris Eccles, who has had a distinguished career in the public service, has joined the Evolve Housing Vic Board as Deputy Chair.

With an amazing and historic investment in housing from the Victorian government in the form of the Big Housing Build, we are seeking to bring our skills and expertise to partner with government for the benefit of Victorians in need. In addition, our profit-for-purpose real estate agency EchoRealty, which predominantly manages affordable housing, has moved into the ACT with 40 properties.

This interstate expansion comes alongside our ongoing growth in NSW, where we continue to gain new contracts to manage social and affordable housing, in a testament to our strong reputation as a market leading housing provider.

Over the past financial year, we managed a total of 4,522 properties housing 10,364 residents. This is a 5.9% increase on last year’s property portfolio and a 3.8% increase on last year’s resident numbers.

To ensure that we can maintain strong business practices during this exciting time, we have also expanded our Board with the addition of four new Directors. These Directors add variety and a new perspective alongside our existing Board members, and I have personally seen the benefit our organisation has received from their outstanding skills, rich experiences and insightful contributions to Board deliberations.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank our Chief Executive Officer, Lyall Gorman, and all of the team at Evolve Housing and EchoRealty for their hard work over the past financial year. Thanks to your efforts and compassionate work, we have been able to meet and even exceed our strategic goals.

PAUL HOWLETT