Today over a 24 hour period we’re urging all those involved in housing from landlords, tenants, suppliers and workers to share their ‘day in the life’ stories using 140 characters on Twitter.
By GUEST EDITOR Adrian Capon 
The idea to raise the profile of UK Housing from a tweetathon was ignited by the success of various initiatives #Walsall24, Greater Manchester Police and Local Government #Ourday. I first blogged about this here.
Across the UK tweeters have shared #HousingDay and have got behind the campaign. It will be great to see which housing organisations tweet and how they celebrate the occasion.
The housing sector is not renowned for shouting about the positive impact we have on peoples’ lives. There are many diverse services we offer. From providing affordable family housing; working actively in the community supporting young people and tackling anti-social behaviour – to improve community cohesion; creating community facilities allowing local people to learn about computers, access education and training – to support getting people into work; helping tenants start and run their own businesses – to creating economic value. And then to every day essential housing repairs and customer visits in neighbourhoods.
Yorkshire Housing will be tweeting about #HousingDay from our new customer service centre and out in our neighbourhoods at @YHousing. We have created a Flickr group to share images about our work. And we will be supported by other UK housing organisations.
Housing day snapshot of what’s happening?
Northwards Housing will be tweeting about their work and sharing employee award film clips. Showing examples of staff who go above and beyond their role in providing services to tenants.
Progress Housing Group is encouraging tenants to get involved and tweet about their experiences of social housing - the positive impact it has had on their lives. Progress will be sharing quotes and tenants photos throughout the day. #HousingDay has inspired Chief Executive, Jacqui De-Rose, to write her first blog to celebrate the role of social housing in society.
Regenda Group are encouraging staff to sign up and use twitter. Those who have can tweet personal insights into their work. Messages and photos from head office and neighbourhood staff out with customers will be shared through the corporate twitter account. Regenda believe #HousingDay is a great way to provide an insight into the working of a housing association and what a difference it makes.
South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) are joining #HousingDay to challenge the perceptions and create new conversations about UK housing. SYHA are promoting the day to staff on Yammer and the reasons why they’re taking part. Staff are sharing stories, photos and videos on a Pinterest board. SYHA aims to show the impact on changing lives of communities and inspiring people to know more about housing.
Halton Housing will be taking part in #HousingDay to raise awareness of the sector and also the huge variety of services that are on offer to customers. Halton’s managers and teams from across the front line will be sharing pictures via their smartphones. Staff will also be encouraged to tweet and retweet throughout the day
How you can get involved?
Today #HousingDay will share your housing story. From a frontline housing officer to the CEO, wherever you work in housing, a supplier or a member of the community, you can say something positive about the great work housing organisations do. Simply use #housingday in your tweets.
Adrian Capon Yorkshire Housing – Communications Team
