STEER Housing Association is based in Letterkenny, Co Donegal and is an Approved Housing Body ( of which there are over 500 in Ireland ) and currently manages 232 properties.
We are a not for profit organisation who provide general needs housing for people who are on the local authorities social housing lists.
It was founded in 2005 initially as a mental health advocacy group and then the goal of meeting the social housing needs for people with mental heath challenges in the North West. STEER initially focused on housing provision in Letterkenny but quickly moved to the provision of general needs social housing via long term property leasing of apartments and houses from 2011, a policy that it followed until 2017. During that time, challenges arose in terms of finance and governance, and threatened its ability to sustain services in a qualitative way.
In Q4 2017, a new board of directors was appointed and immediately took steps to address the significant issues affecting STEER. The board has now rectified most of the issues and has assessed that the association is financially viable whilst continuing to manage the needs of its portfolio and ensuring that its tenants have a safe place to call home.
Current board members comprise across a range of professions: legal, finance , engineering , property and business related. There is a changing and rigorous regulatory environment for all Housing Associations.
We are now looking to strengthen the Board membership across the following areas although not exclusive.
- Governance
- Finance
- Property and housing management
- Risk appraisal and risk management
Board meetings are currently held (via Zoom) approx every 2 months with management information issued monthly by the manager. We also have an audit, finance and risk committee in place.
Steer Housing Association would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in getting further information.