Knowing Our Tenants – A Guide for Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) Tenants YHN has approximately 70,000 residents in 30,000 properties and it is important that we give a high quality service to all of our tenants. Since 2006, we have collected six pieces of personal information: gender (male/female), age, ethnic origin, religious belief, sexual orientation (straight, gay and bi-sexuality) and disability. Why do we collect this information? YHN’s customers have different backgrounds and it is essential we recognise this. By knowing personal information we can develop our services to fit our tenants. This information helps YHN plan ahead, for example the UK has an aging population, so knowing a tenant’s age is important. How do we use this information? YHN uses the six pieces of personal data in different ways. Here are a few examples of how we use the information. Gender (male/female) By knowing the gender of our customers we can invite equal numbers of males and females to consultation events. Age The UK’s aging population is influencing our new build programme. In the future we will need more sheltered accommodation. YHN has a Young People’s Service aimed at providing support and advice to young people. Ethnic Origin
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In the past, YHN found Black and Minority Ethnic customers gave our repairs and maintenance services lower satisfaction scores than other customers. YHN made the satisfaction cards easier to understand and advertised the interpretation service. These measures improved the levels of satisfaction amongst these customers. Religion Friday is a prayer day for Muslims, so YHN can adjust delivering furniture or carrying out a repair to another day. All new YHN staff are given a guide to culture and diversity, which includes information on many religions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. At YHN events we offer a range of foods suitable for all tenants. Disability Information about disability influences YHN’s Adaptations Service and we can add minor adaptations such as hand rails. Around one in six of our tenants have some form of disability. During 2011, YHN is planning to build 32 properties for disabled people and adapt existing homes to make them wheelchair accessible. Sexual orientation (straight, gay, bi-sexual) A gay young person can become homeless, because their family may reject them. Members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community may experience homophobic harassment or hate crime. YHN can use this information to address issues and better protect our tenants. Where is the information kept? YHN keeps this personal information safe and secure within the organisation’s computer system called Northgate. YHN’s policies are inline with the Data Protection Act. Further information YHN’s website contains information on our Equality and Diversity policies and staff at your local housing office will be able give you additional information. 2