A minute with Magnus

Happy new year! We hope you managed to have a safe and refreshing holiday before getting stuck into a new year. Here at Churches Housing we are busy for a number of reasons:

• After more than five years, Donna has moved on. We will miss her greatly and are very thankful for the contribution she has made with the joy and passion that bubbles out of her. We wish her every blessing as she commences at William Clark College next week.
•  Philippa Yelland has commenced as our Research and Communications Officer. We are very excited to have Philippa with us and she has already hit the ground running. Please read a little more of her profile below and say hello when you get a chance.
•  SAHF 2 is quickly approaching and we are having a number of conversations with potential bidders. If you are thinking about putting in an EOI then please let me know. We have also been able to link a few of our members together, none of whom would have been able to go it alone. Please read our summary below for some more information.
•  We are excited to welcome our newest member in Muslim Care, the first entity within the Muslim faith that has registered as a CHP. Churches Housing is walking alongside to assist them in becoming established and hope that other members may also be willing to share knowledge and experience.
•  Before the Christmas break, Churches Housing lodged a submission to the Greater Sydney Commission’s Draft Greater Sydney Region Plan and revised District Plans. We made a number of recommendations – please read our submission here.
•  As part of our involvement with the Sydney Alliance, we are participating in an Affordable Rental Listening Day in Penrith on the morning of Saturday 17 March. We hope that this action will add to both the evidence base – through a survey conducted on the day – as well as demonstrating to local and state governments how strongly people feel about the affordable housing issue. Are you interested in joining us? Then please write to me and I will send you a letter of invitation with all the details.
•  Our Networking Breakfast on Friday 16 February will be a unique opportunity to hear the latest on build-to-rent with a presentation from Ernst & Young’s James Brennan in the Sydney CBD. This won’t be just an ‘information dump’ – it’s a unique opportunity to network and build relationships. See your invitation in the next article or click here

I look forward to working with you in fulfilling our mission of Unleashing church resources for housing through collaboration, partnerships, education and capacity building.

Magnus Linder Executive Officer