Australasian Housing Institute, AHI

IN THE BLINK OF AI: Making sense of AI in housing

In late 2023, Disruptive Innovators Network (DIN) in the UK ran its first conference solely on Artificial Intelligence. DIN journo-in-residence Gav Hollander provides his thoughts from the day while capturing key elements from the speakers.

Are our jobs safe?


Will machine learning help us become better landlords? And will the robots eventually enslave us all?


These were the questions on everyone’s minds as delegates gathered at Salesforce HQ in London for Disruptive Innovators Network’s first conference on the opportunities and risks presented by the irresistible rise of Artificial Intelligence – In the Blink of AI.


DIN supremo Ian Wright opened proceedings with a warning that the “sector was not necessarily in the place it thought it was when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence”, which made the need to get on top of the issues all the more pressing. But any move towards adopting AI technologies without a clear strategy about how to do it – and without good data to back it up – will lead to bad outcomes.

“If you take artificial intelligence and you add in bullshit data, you end up with artificial stupidity."

Or, as Ian says to colleagues: “If you take artificial intelligence and you add in bullshit data, you end up with artificial stupidity."


Don’t be scared


With that in mind, DIN’s AI advisor Andrew Burgess – the founder and CEO of Greenhouse Intelligence – was on hand to walk delegates through what AI actually is (and isn’t!) and to discuss the practical applications, threats and opportunities presented by our new machine overlords, the technology.

"It’s not magic and it’s not killer dolls!”

Andrew’s first message is a reassuring one: “Don’t be scared!”. He says the best way to think about AI is “just clever maths – it’s not magic and it’s not killer dolls!”. That ‘clever maths’ has been around since the 1950s and comes in many forms, whether its machine learning, large language models, or generative tools such as ChatGPT. But Andrew insists that all of these forms exist primarily to help us do our jobs better. Or at least that’s the idea. 


“I want to make AI boring for you,” he tells colleagues. “I want to bring it down to earth so you think of it as a tool that you can use in your organisation.”



Focussing on the capability that AI offers, Andrew explains how, at its most basic, it does two things: captures information; and then begins to interpret it. Or in other words, it can tell us both what is happening and try to explain why that thing is happening.


So, how can that help us in housing?


Andrew uses a real-world example of employing AI to predict which tenants will go into rent arrears.

“You can actually go further as well,” he explains. “What we can do is take all of the information that we have - data like payments history, demographics, the properties people are in and any other information that we have that we can put into the model to work out the likelihood of this person going into arrears.”


That data can then be used to predict which other tenants are likely to go into arrears, allowing landlords to work with them before it gets too late.


Andrew adds that the technology allows us “to go a stage further than just predicting rent arrears”, explaining how it can actually help landlords predict a tenant’s likelihood to fail at each of the steps of the arrears process. This predictive ability, says Andrew, is what makes AI so potentially useful. It can be used for better property management and for helping address damp and mould issues, for example, by using data about the property itself as well as the people who occupy it.


But while the applications of the various forms of AI might be virtually endless, Andrew says businesses must make sure they don’t put the cart in front of the horse: “A lot of people come to me and say, ‘How do we use AI in our business?’ and that’s the wrong way to use it. What you should be asking is: What are your business objectives and can AI help with them?”


What is AI?



Do we all understand what people mean when they talk about AI? AI writer and advisor Antony Slumbers is on hand to give delegates a whistlestop tour of the history of AI, where it is today, and to explain which buzzword means what.

“A world gone bonkers.”

Antony describes what he calls “a world gone bonkers” in terms of the pace of change in AI over the past decade.


Whereas ‘Moore’s Law’ essentially says that computing speeds double every two years, the current rate of change for each version of ChatGPT is around 10x every year, while other chatbots are estimated to be increasing in power around 100 times every three years, making Moore’s Law “the slow lane”.


“It’s the speed of transition and the scale that is generating the really transformational change,” he adds, which makes it all the more important to know what each technology is and what it can do for you.


“Traditional AI predicts, classifies and clusters,” Antony says. “It works with the world as it is, whereas generative AI does what it says on the tin: it creates new and original content.”


And how does generative AI, such as ChatGPT work: “It’s trained on this huge amount of data, it uses the patterns in this data to build a statistical model, and then it uses that statistical model to enable it to generate new things. Because it understands how things are put together, it can go and create something that operates in statistically the same way.”


In the real world, Antony describes what is going on as “automating the application of expertise”, which means that more and more jobs could become automated but also that it could drive value across organisations.


“If you get your data sorted, you’re suddenly in a position to understand your organisation and the world around you much, much better.”


That doesn’t mean that data scraping bots will make half of your team redundant but rather that they could make those same teams work better. Quoting a McKinsey report into the impact of AI, Antony says that around 70% of the hours worked today could be automated in one way or another. “But this is not a matter of changing or getting rid of jobs. It’s changing tasks.”


This is already happening today according to Antony. “Generative AI has brought everything forward by a decade – mainstream adoption could come as early as 2030. I would lean into the early scenario; it will future proof you and might give you a massive competitive advantage.”


And if all of this seems a long way from the core function of housing associations and local authorities, Antony outlines three of the key things residents care about: getting repairs done quickly and to a high standard; understanding from their landlord what the problem is; and communication. “Generative AI solves all of that!”

A word (or two) of caution


It’s fair to say that some advocates of AI can occasionally sound a little idealistic or evangelical about their new toys. And while ‘move fast and break things’ might be a sound mantra in Silicon Valley, it’s not one you’ll hear much in the UK housing sector.


Luckily, Sarah Darrall, policy advisor at the Government’s Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation (CDEI) is on hand to present its Model for Responsible Innovation, a tool that formalises what is meant by responsible innovation “with trustworthiness at its core” – a value likely to resonate with the social landlords in the room.


The model “provides a flow from micro level interventions to macro level concepts and helps you understand what practical steps can be taken to make the use case of whatever technology you are using more ethically robust,” explains Sarah.


The CDEI also offers workshops where individual organisations can work with the agency to map out the ethical considerations of the particular technology they are working with, helping move from complex ideas to practical solutions.

With regard to AI in particular, Sarah tells delegates: “The complexity of AI systems often prevents individuals from an understanding how that system has made a decision about them.



“The scalability of AI can make it particularly difficult to define legitimate values or governance frameworks for a particular operation, for example across different social contexts or jurisdictions. And it can create risks around unpredictability and the opacity of decision making.



So, as these technologies are more widely adopted, this increasing range of actors – including regulators, industry, public sector, executives, and the frontline users – need to think about how they’re using these tools, why they’re using these tools and whether or not they’re functioning as expected.”



Deploying AI in a responsible way is the challenge of the day, and a pertinent one for the social housing sector, where ‘not frightening the horses’ is always an important part of implementing any new technology.



In a panel discussion focusing on the risks and opportunities presented by AI, Maeve Collier, director of IT and change at Beyond Housing, raises one of the concerns shared by many about adopting new technology without sufficient safeguards in place.

"There's a nervousness about the security risks."

“There’s a nervousness, particularly at board level, about some of the security risks,” she tells colleagues. “We’ve seen the sector being targeted and we don’t want to be on the front page of the paper in the same situation, so cyber security is a huge area of concern within our organisation. There’s an interest in it but a concern around it about exposing ourselves.”


Beyond Housing has only dipped its toe in the water of AI, as Maeve adds. “We have just started our journey: using chat bots and machine learning in rent analytics. For us, it’s about understanding the outputs and understanding the business case [for deploying AI]. It’s part of a batch of solutions and not the only one.”


Surprising opportunities


But if some of the risks are there for all to see, there are some ways in which AI could be used in housing that are far from immediately obvious.


DIN invited two exciting AI startups to present seven-minute ‘Lightning Pitches’ to colleagues to show how the technology could transform areas of their business that might not seem the most robot-friendly.



First up, Peter Hudson, sales director at Voicescape, explains how his company’s new Caseload Manager tool is helping to revolutionise resident engagement and, as a result, improve how landlords can deal with arrears and rent collection. Peter says that the data that housing associations hold about their customers is a vast treasure trove that AI and machine learning can help transform into vastly improved tenant engagement and customer service.

"Every housing association says they’ve got loads of information, so surely we can make better use of that."

“Every housing association says they’ve got loads of information, loads of data about past engagement behaviours, past payment behaviours, so surely we can make better use of that,” he says to explain the premise of the tool.


The genesis of Caseload Manager was a housing association client that commissioned Voicescape to build a new service to fix the specific problem of how landlords can better support tenants in arrears. Peter says that AI as applied through the Case Management tool can take “key indicators” from the mass of data associations hold to deal with specific tenants in specific ways.


“Actually, as a landlord, you know far more about these tenants, and it’s just about harnessing AI to go back in time and say, what’s going on with that tenant?”


The impact on clients isn’t just that their number of tenants in debt has reduced but that they are spending less time on income collection, freeing staff up to work on other parts of the business.


Next, the founder of Future Fox, Annette Jezierska, shows how AI and LLMs can be used to increase public engagement with planning consultations. The company uses AI to simplify complicated planning documentation, so that local people are offered shorter and easier to use questionnaires, in turn enabling better informed decision making.


“From the public point of view, these consultations are incredibly boring and complicated,” Annette says, highlighting how only around 3% of the population engage with consultations. “Our job is to increase that and make create much, much bigger datasets.”


In short, the idea is that AI automates the consultation process not just to save time, but to create better planning outcomes that better reflect the needs of local people.


“Data analysis is way more exciting than it sounds”.

A democratic revolution


“Data analysis is way more exciting than it sounds”. That is Hattie Walker-Arnott’s rallying cry as the founder of AI RE who closes the conference by showing how some of the most basic and readily available AI tools can be used in practical ways by colleagues across property and housing management roles.


For example, data visualisation tools, such as Python, can show the correlation between reported damp and mould problems and the age of housing stock.


“Within an hour you can sit down and ask questions of your data and work through 20 or 30 different graphical representations to see if there are any interesting correlations.”


For Hattie, the revolutionary part of the recent AI explosion, and tools like ChatGPT in particular, is the democratisation of technology, meaning it is available to all at minimal cost.


“[In the past]. we have generally either ended up with tech that is a burden or doesn’t serve the customer’s needs,” she tells the conference. “Now, one of the use cases of ChatGPT is that you can start to build tech tools with zero tech knowledge. In the same way as anyone can write a blog or produce a podcast, anyone can make a basic software product.”

That means organisations and individuals can create and test products without huge capital outlays and use those that work for their particular problem.


“It means we can invest in products that are helping our organisations and not just another product that gets assigned to the tech graveyard.”


For more information and a chat about DIN’s work in this important and developing area, please contact: Jason Wickens, Digital & Data Lead at DIN jason.wickens@disruptiveinnovatorsnetwork.co.uk

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Brighter Future Awards nominations now open!!

February 14, 2025
It is with great pleasure that we announce nominations are now open for the ahi: 2025 Brighter Future Awards .

Submission in response to the Draft NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025 - 2035

February 14, 2025
About the Australasian Housing Institute The Australasian Housing Institute (ahi) is a professional body for workers in the social and affordable housing and Specialist Homelessness Service (SHS) sectors across Australia and New Zealand. It has Branch Committees in each state and territory, as well as in New Zealand. The ahi is submitting a response to the Draft NSW Homelessness Strategy (the Strategy), representing the collective feedback of the NSW Branch Committee, with the support of the entire ahi organization. With over 2,000 members across NSW, ahi members work in both government and non-government housing organizations. The ahi has a long history of collaborating with SHS, Specialist Disability Services, and other mainstream services, including health, education, and local councils. For the past 25 years, ahi has been proudly delivering training for industry housing professionals across a wide range of areas, including tenancy management, asset management, and governance. The ahi also hosts masterclasses and networking events to support its members. The ahi provides professional development to the workforce through: Training and knowledge-building on a range of issues relevant to social housing professionals, from induction programs for new workers to advanced and specialized training in areas such as asset management, trauma-informed approaches with applicants and tenants, personal development, and community participation. A mentoring program that pairs experienced professionals with newer or younger members to help them achieve their career aspirations and goals. A certification program for social housing professionals to uphold professional standards and ensure success in their area of expertise. Leading the Annual Brighter Future Awards, which recognize excellence in the social housing industry. Promoting active, engaged, and connected membership through the delivery of topical events, seminars, webinars, masterclasses, and more. As a member-based professional body, the ahi is uniquely positioned to build trust, enhance skills, and foster relationships across both the government and non-government sectors, as well as between organizations. Summary The ahi congratulates the NSW Government on its significant investment of $6.6 billion in the 2024 budget, aimed at tackling the unprecedented housing stress and the rising numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness driven by the ongoing rental crisis in both the private rental and social housing sectors. The Strategy for 2025-2035 is highly commendable, with its three core goals—rare, brief, and non-repeated—standing out as ambitious and impactful objectives aimed at addressing homelessness. These goals are set to bring about significant changes in the social housing system and provide a clear policy framework to guide efforts toward achieving meaningful outcomes over the next decade. The ahi recognizes the importance of this Strategy and the critical role that the social and affordable rental housing system plays in meeting these goals, emphasizing the need for genuine, whole-of-government collaboration in delivering results. This approach involves collaboration across government, the not-for-profit community housing sector, and mainstream services, all supported by SHS’s within a Housing First framework and guided by a clear governance structure. It marks a shift from a deficit-driven perspective to a solution-focused, positive approach. The success of this transformation relies on collective efforts through co-design, co-evaluation, and co-delivery, ensuring the long-term effectiveness of the change. For this paradigm shift to succeed, it will require a skilled, committed, and dedicated workforce, as outlined in Principle 8 (The Workforce is Strong and Capable). Recognizing the need for a sustained, locally connected workforce is crucial to addressing the diverse needs of individuals experiencing homelessness across all three phases of their journey. In its feedback on the Strategy, the ahi emphasizes the importance of focused attention on homelessness and social housing workforce planning, professional development, industry support, and the need for culturally competent workers—both paid and voluntary—who bring diversity, inclusion skills, and lived experience. Finally, the ahi urges that Principle 8, which highlights the strength and capability of the workforce, be prioritized, particularly in supporting First Nations people experiencing housing stress and homelessness, with a long-term vision extending beyond the next 10 years. Detailed response The following is more a detailed response from the ahi to the questions outlined in the consultation paper for the Strategy. SECTION 1: The Guiding Principles of the Strategy 1. What do we need to consider as we implement services and system reform guided by these principles (total 9) over the next 10 years? As we implement services and system reform guided by these principles over the next 10 years, the ahi suggests the following approaches be prioritized: Workforce planning should be a key focus in the first rolling action plan (2025-2027), with an emphasis on forecasting the ongoing skills and competency needs throughout the life of The Strategy. This will ensure the workforce is equipped to meet evolving demands. Increasing the supply of dwellings to address crisis, transition, and permanent housing needs must be matched by a parallel increase in the workforce. This includes expanding both paid employees and volunteers within social housing, community housing organizations, and Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS). A well-supported workforce is essential to ensuring the successful and sustainable delivery of outcomes envisioned by the Strategy. Skilling workers who assist First Nations people experiencing homelessness should be prioritised. This requires a culturally competent workforce at all levels to provide high-quality services and ensure that First Nations people do not experience repeated homelessness. By focusing on cultural competence, we can foster better outcomes and long-term stability for these communities. 2. Which Principle should be prioritized and why? The ahi fully supports all nine Principles, with particular emphasis on Principle 8: Workforce is Strong and Capable, as being foundational. Addressing homelessness is a person-centered solution that requires culturally competent employees and volunteers who can establish strong, supportive networks with wraparound services at the local community level. This is essential to meeting the evolving needs and remains a high priority in the First Action Plan (2025-2027). Ongoing professional development for workers is crucial to ensuring long-term success in meeting the changing social, economic, and environmental needs of those living in quality housing. It is also vital for ensuring tenants not only live well but stay connected to their communities. Supporting the workforce’s safety and wellness is key to maintaining a capable, resilient workforce, which in turn ensures the best possible quality of housing, management, and support for tenants. SECTION 2: Strategy focus areas: 1. To make homelessness rare, what should NSW prioritise for action and why? The ahi believes that adequate funding for SHS’s is essential to ensure they are properly resourced to assist individuals at risk of or in a crisis state of homelessness at the point of need. The ability to identify risks and allocate resources effectively for intake assessments and service coordination is key to early intervention and prevention. A triage system is vital for facilitating positive outcomes, aiming to make homelessness a one-off experience. The ahi also supports dedicated funding for staff training and development in this field, recognizing its importance in preventing homelessness from becoming a long-term issue. Investing in training allows for timely and appropriate interventions, helping to break the cycle of homelessness early on. 2. What opportunities and risks are there for implementing actions under this outcome? Delaying action in assisting individuals experiencing homelessness can lead to a loss of faith and hope in the NSW housing system, pushing them toward the justice system or, in the case of older people or women escaping domestic violence, even premature death. Implementing this outcome presents an opportunity to build a culturally competent, and trauma-informed workforce, a key factor to transforming lives while simultaneously increasing the supply of housing. Supporting a resilient workforce, where high job satisfaction is fostered, creates committed and effective workers who can make a lasting difference. 3. What types (s) would be most useful to measure our impact and why? A key target in the First Action Plan (2025-2027) is to reduce the number of people on the social housing waitlist during the reporting period. This measure will serve as an indicator of success and validate the effectiveness of early intervention policies in preventing homelessness. Additionally, setting targets for the number of employees and volunteers in the social housing and SHS sectors, as well as tracking turnover rates, is essential to assessing the success of building a stronger, more capable workforce. 4. To make homelessness brief, what should NSW Priorities for action & why? Domestic violence, family abuse, and coercive control are major causes of homelessness among women, with the number of homeless women and children increasing according to the latest data. Adequate funding for this vulnerable group is a top priority. Supporting these women has a profound impact on their recovery, resilience, and ability to raise their children, leading to positive generational outcomes in the long term. The rising trend of older women experiencing homelessness for the first time also requires early intervention to prevent premature death. 5. What opportunity and risks are there for implementing actions under this outcome? The continued trend of women dying as a result of domestic violence and family abuse is deeply concerning. In 2024, 14 older women aged 55 and over were killed, a distressing statistic according to the Commissioner for Domestic and Family Violence, Michaela Cronin. These women are at a higher risk of vulnerability, often with no support systems to rely on. Implementing actions under this outcome presents a crucial opportunity to save lives, reduce the number of women experiencing both domestic violence and homelessness, and help them rebuild their lives. 6. What types of target(s) would be useful for measuring our impact and why? Reducing the number of women who die as a result of domestic violence and family abuse during the First Action Plan (2025-2027) is an important metric to track and report, demonstrating the efficacy of The Strategy. Individual success stories are powerful testimonies that show the goals of the Strategy are benefiting both individuals and the housing system. The skills required for employees and volunteers in this area demand dedicated funding and training resources. Implementing a measure to evaluate the outcomes of training courses would be valuable, helping to refine and improve the content and application of these programs. 7. To ensure homelessness is not repeated, what should NSW prioritize for action and why? First Nations people are overrepresented in experiencing homelessness and face significant challenges in breaking the cycle. Priority should be given to this group under the Housing First Principle, supported by skilled and capable staff and volunteers, to empower them and prevent repeat homelessness. Rental tenancy laws in NSW should be reviewed, particularly regarding the cessation of tenancy due to prolonged absences. Cultural customs related to death and bereavement (Sorry Business) should be recognised as acceptable reasons for absences and incorporated into tenancy policies. 8. What opportunities and risks are there in implementing actions under this outcome? The risk of not achieving the goals outlined in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap for the NSW Government is significant if priority is not given to properly housing and supporting First Nations people. There are valuable opportunities in collaborating with Aboriginal leaders through a co-design, co-evaluation, and co-delivery approach. Their collective commitment to improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can lead to positive outcomes in housing, health, education, employment, justice, safety, and inclusion. 9. What types of target(s) would be most useful to measure the impact and why? Increase the number of Aboriginal workers with certified qualifications across various areas of the Aboriginal housing sector. Aboriginal tenants depend on highly qualified and culturally competent workers and volunteers to help build their resilience and prevent repeated homelessness. Regular customer satisfaction surveys should be conducted to measure tenants’ satisfaction levels and identify areas of strength and improvement. Conclusion The ahi supports an ambitious supply growth program throughout the life of the Strategy to address homelessness in NSW. With 63,260 households (based on 2023-2024 data) currently on the waiting list, it is crucial to reduce this number over the next 10 years through the rolling action plans. Successfully delivering the Strategy will require a skilled, trauma-informed, and competent workforce to implement an integrated housing system. While workforce planning is mentioned as one of the nine principles, its lack of detailed planning is concerning. The ahi strongly suggests that the principles of co-design, co-evaluation, and co-delivery be incorporated from the outset in developing the rolling action plans. The ahi thanks the NSW Government for the opportunity to submit feedback and for its ongoing consideration of building a strong and capable workforce that is recognised and supported by a broad range of industries. The value of including people with lived experience and their unique knowledge and skills cannot be overlooked as an essential voice in this transformative process. Contact NSW Branch Committee - Australasian Housing Institute admin@housinginstitute.org www.theahi.com.au (02) 6494 7566 Date submitted: 11/2/25 Submitted to: Homelessness.strategy@homes.nsw.gov.au

Appointment of new auditor

October 24, 2024
Australasian Housing Institute (the Company) wishes to announce that effective from today, 24th October 2024, Accounting & Audit Solutions Bendigo (AASB) has been appointed as auditor of the Company. The change of auditor has occurred due to the resignation of Kelly Partners (Sydney) as the company’s auditor. The company received approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to change its auditors in accordance with section 329(6) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Accordingly, the Company has accepted the resignation of Kelly Partners (Sydney). AASB’s appointment is effective until the next Annual General Meeting of the Company. In accordance with section 327C of the Corporations Act, a resolution will be put to members at the 2025 Annual General Meeting to appoint AASB as the Company’s ongoing auditor.
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