The ‘See Me – Hear Me’ workshop was Northern Links final workshop for the financial year.

Northern Links co-ordinator Wendy LeBlanc said the beading workshop gave people the chance to be involved in a creative activity and meet and chat with other tenants about issues involved in living in social housing.

“It’s more of a ‘get to know you’, a laid back talk and we take down all the issues everybody’s got with their housing, which we will follow up when we get back to Armidale,” Wendy said.

She said Northern Links could help tenants address issues of maintenance, transfers, overcrowding, promises being made and not being followed through and the quality of work being done.

“Our goal is to try to prevent evictions and make sure people are getting their needs met,” Wendy said. “We’re usually very effective in that role because we know what the Department of Housing can and can’t do.”

Wendy said one lady at the workshop was still waiting after two and a half years for a promised ramp and handrails to be able to walk down her stairs safely.

“It’s not the Department of Housing’s fault, because they no longer own the properties,” Wendy said.

“Land and Housing Corporation own the properties, and they come under Finance. All the properties were transferred about 18months ago.”

Wendy said that change had made it harder for groups like hers to advocate for public housing tenants.

Tenant support worker Kate Thomas said it all boiled down to money.

“Tailoring of the money is the issue, not lack of money,” she said.

“I mean the government is in surplus. They don’t have a money problem, but they have a tailoring issue about how they spend it and the quality of the things they spend it on.”

Northern Links covers an area from Forster to the Queensland border and out to Moree.