Why do we survey our tenants?

Focus Ireland provides a range of services, and key among them is the provision of long-term and secure social housing for over 1000 tenants, most of whom have experience of homelessness. This is delivered through our housing arm, Focus Housing Association. It is important that we understand the experiences of our tenants so that we can provide the best accommodation for them and make improvements where necessary. Focus Housing has tenants with a range of different support needs, split into three main categories:

• Supported tenants, who receive housing and additional supports such as a keyworker
• Housing First tenants, who receive housing as well as intensive, comprehensive, and holistic support
• General needs tenants, who receive housing and no additional supports

The single best way to gain insight into what is working for tenants and where we can make improvements is to listen to what they have to say, and that’s why we recently carried out the second in a series of Tenant Satisfaction Surveys.

This particular survey is a form of what’s known as a longitudinal survey – a survey that is repeated at different points in time to capture changes in attitudes and feelings. For this survey, data collection for the first iteration was done pre-Covid. The world looks very different 6 years later. Repeating the survey allows us to not only look at how satisfaction has changed but to also see if tenant’s priorities have changed.

What do our tenants think of us?

Overall, the survey results were extremely positive.

Focus Housing tenants scored their satisfaction with their accommodation 8.4/10 (up from 7.9) and satisfaction with their local area 8.1/10 (up from 7.7).

Tenants were less likely to report problems with their housing this time around compared to last time, and 45% reported no issues with their current accommodation. This is a welcome reflection of the substantial investment in renovations and upgrades since the last survey. Some areas were particularly positive – all participants reported that their accommodation was accessible, and 99% felt safe and secure inside their home.

Tenants also spoke very highly of the staff they engage with. When asked about Focus Housing’s Property Team, almost all participants felt that they were polite, easy to contact, and available to take their call when needed. When asked about their Focus Ireland keyworker, 80% of relevant survey participants were either satisfied or very satisfied.

Room to Improve

In keeping with the 2020 survey results, anti-social behaviour in the local community remains a concern. Tenants also mentioned issues around maintenance and repairs, with results showing that information regarding these issues wasn’t always communicated well.

There was also an increase in tenants feeling ‘neutral’ about their keyworker. While we don’t know exactly why this is, a number of tenants mentioned being assigned a new keyworker recently and not knowing them very well yet. This may reflect staffing pressures being experienced across care services. Tenants also mentioned a need for improved communication around staff changes affecting them, especially in relation to keyworkers.

Points of concern

The biggest shift recorded in the survey results concerned money management – survey participants felt less confident managing money, were less likely to have enough money to pay for food and bills and were less likely to be free from debt or arrears. In 2020 nearly two-thirds of tenants felt that they were ‘always confident managing money’, in 2025 this had fallen significantly to 13%. Even more concerning was that in 2020 57% were ‘always free from debt or arrears’ – this has plunged to just 7%.

Unfortunately, these results are not entirely surprising given the sustained increase in cost of living in Ireland in recent years, an estimated 25% increase since 2020, felt most by low-income households. 83% of participants were in receipt of some form of Social Welfare payment and we know that households reliant on social welfare struggle most to keep pace with cost-of-living increases.

Next steps

Based on the views of the tenants, the Research team developed a series of recommendations for Focus Housing and Focus Ireland. The most important next step is to work towards implementing these recommendations. Some of the issues, such as cost-of-living pressures are beyond our direct control, but our advocacy team will work with allies to push for more effective Government action.

One of the recommendations is to repeat this survey every 2-3 years. This will give Focus Housing and Focus Ireland enough time to start implementing the recommendations, and we can then track if these changes improve things for tenants in the findings next time round.

Conclusions

Dignity and Quality are values at the heart of both Focus Ireland and our housing arm, Focus Housing. Listening to and responding to tenant voices respects these values. We take pride in the commitment and dedication of our staff, and the findings from this survey show that the high quality of this work does not go unnoticed by tenants.

While this survey also highlights areas where we can improve, they are achievable adjustments which will serve to make an already very good service even better.

At Focus Ireland we believe that it is important to highlight positive stories in relation to homelessness, when possible, in particular where solutions are working well. We look forward using these survey findings to make the changes that will further increase the satisfaction of our tenants in the coming years.

You can read the findings of this survey in detail here.