Written by Sam Haywood, Social Renter and Tenant Participation Rep
So, as I sat down to write this blog post to talk about my experience at the Shelter Cymru People and Homes Conference 2025, I got thinking – I sometimes feel like the guy that’s shouting at the clouds or Chicken Little running around worrying that the sky’s going to fall in!! And as a social tenant with an often zoomed out and simplified take on problems I’m often made to feel like “I’m just a tenant”
From even before I arrived at the event I was humbled to be invited and when I arrived, I was made to feel welcome and introduced to many of the Shelter Cymru team.
I was lucky enough to hear from inspirational and educational speakers, they fielded questions and later in the day I met policy makers and got to talk about my lived experiences in a small personal setting.
Throughout the day, the one thing that stood out to me was that there were common themes:
- People knew things had to change
- People wanted things to get better
- People were going to do as much as they can to make it happen
I could list the speakers and the subjects, but truth be told it doesn’t really matter!! It was far more important that all these professionals- support workers, peer reviewers, doctors, teachers, prison officers, etc – had come together to actual DO something!
Networks were built, details were exchanged, plans made and ways forward forged.
Perhaps I am being the eternal optimist (probably not I’ve just had a root canal) but my overarching feeling was that in the housing sector it is accepted that we have a stock crisis in Wales and that unless the nation (Wales) acts as a whole then we will continue to have an unsustainable inflation in rents with an insatiable need for homes.
If the above is accepted as fact, then this can only be exacerbating the problem Wales has with an aging population and “Brain Drain” – what young professional will stay in a place that they can’t live and build a future?
Not since the 1950’s has the UK, and especially Cymru, needed desperately to build new towns and stimulate us out of the housing rut we find ourselves in. We as a nation need to remember that the sounder of social care was a Welshman.
We as Humans, no matter if we are working in the sector or living in communities, need to remember that we are surrounded by people, real humans, who like us, are scared, love, laugh and want to succeed.
Most of all I was reminded that I am not “JUST” a tenant but that my lived experiences, both good and bad, are real and they need to be shared.
I heard the inspirational lived experiences of others. I heard about the legislative changes and proposed changes so that maybe other people in future won’t have to go through what we have.
Another feature of the conference was breakout workshops – where I learnt a great deal about subjects that gave me differing perspectives on problems faced by people day to day. One such from the perspective of a service provider and another from a research group. Both were incredibly helpful, in small rooms which allowed for more questions and real conversations to happen both during and after the presentations.
If you’ve got this far and are thinking to yourself “I’d like to go next year”, do it. There is a space for tenants, both social and private, at the conference and it really was a golden opportunity to forge links with people I would never have ordinarily met with.
Everyone and anyone could and would benefit from this conference and an overarching theme running through the conference was to remember the person at the heart of decisions. That while providers do maintain professional “distance” they should always remember to show compassion and care.
Overall, I had a fantastic day, I left feeling energised and a lot less worried than I had for a long time.
The Shelter Cymru staff were all lovely they all made me feel at home, the food was very nice (especially the cookies in the morning with my coffee). Special mention to the 2 coffee machines that took an absolute pasting – the Latte was awesome!!
If you have any interest in your local community and shaping it then this really is the best way to meet people who are all trying to do the same thing. Don’t be scared or nervous, there will be other tenants about and I am sure we can all share our stories over a brew.
Lauren thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend and thank you for checking in on me all day – as I said the Shelter Cymru Staff couldn’t do enough.
As I said earlier, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the conference by Lauren at Shelter Cymru and my ticket was made possible thanks to Lloyds Banking Foundation’ssupport for the conference.
