Special General Meeting update

Last night we held a Special General Meeting at The Green Man to decide on two proposed rule changes. One was embedding the Phoenix Gateway into our Governance Structure through formal recognition in our rules, and the other was a change to who can sit as Vice Chair of the Board.

Both resolutions were carried by resident shareholders.

Board Chair and Vice Chair

Since Phoenix Community Housing was set up, the Chair and Vice-Chair of our Board have been tenants, in line with our rules. We want to protect and uphold our resident-led model while providing flexibility to the Board for the Vice-Chair position.

The position of Chair will remain safeguarded so that only tenants can hold this position while the Vice-Chair position will be opened to the rest of the board.

Embedding a Central Resident Body

The Phoenix Gateway, which is made up of mostly tenants with a leaseholder and one other Phoenix resident, was set up to offer advice and support to our Board, overseeing resident consultation, influencing key projects, events and initiatives. This ensures that when our Board makes decisions, they can take into account the views of residents.

The rule change further embeds this into Phoenix by formally recognising the Phoenix Gateway as a key part of Phoenix’s governance structure.

Phoenix tenant and Chair of the Board, Carmen Simpson, said: “I started my resident involvement journey by taking part in events, which led to me enrolling in the Phoenix Academy, standing for Vice-Chair of the Board and now leading the Board as Chair. Those opportunities are due to the legacy of our tenant founders 15 years ago and we are determined to retain our resident-led model.

“I’m so proud of our model and we want to strengthen it, but we need to be able to exercise some flexibility around the Vice Chair role while we work on succession plans for new tenant board members. We are committed to ensuring that residents remain the largest group on our Board and embedding the Phoenix Gateway into our governance structure will also support those efforts.”

Phoenix was founded by tenant activists who got involved and created their own housing association. Since then, resident involvement and leadership has remained at the heart of all we do and will continue to do. You can find out more about the different involvement opportunities here. If you would like to speak to us about getting involved, please get in touch.

Want to find out more about becoming a shareholder? Get in contact with us.