In one of her first visits as St George Community Housing’s new Chief Customer Officer, Tamara asked the transitional accommodation team in St Leonards two questions: How do you look after yourselves and each other? And how do you share your insights and celebrate progress?  

The team told her about the importance of taking the time to debrief and celebrating small successes. They also told her about the quick wins – the calls they get from people they’ve helped through a crisis. Sometimes it’s someone ringing to say they’ve found a place to live. Sometimes it’s news of a new job. It’s a fast feedback loop that reassures the team that they’re making an impact. 

For Tamara, this says something very significant about the importance of good support. Both for customers and for one another. She wants to harness this and help SGCH understand and share more about the real difference support makes. 

From community development to retirement living 

Tamara began her career as a community development manager before going on to deliver large masterplanned communities across NSW and the ACT at Lendlease. In 2019, she received the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s national Women in Leadership award. She joins SGCH from Keyton, where she was Head of Resident Operations, overseeing 76 retirement villages and resorts, home to more than 17,000 residents.  

At Keyton, customer voice was everything.  

“We had resident committees in every village with peer leaders that were real movers and shakers!” says Tamara. “They were vital in making sure we as an organisation, were tapped into the local needs of each site.” 

Their feedback helped her team identify maintenance as the first service they needed to improve. Written survey responses showed where residents were running into problems, and the team used later surveys to track how satisfaction changed after they updated their maintenance systems and provided residents with improved communication via a resident specific app. 

Some of the ideas Tamara is proudest of came directly from residents. At Keyton, she oversaw the development of a program that offered grants of up to $1,500 for projects residents wanted to run themselves. The money could buy wool for a knitting group or sheet music for a choir. In one village, a resident started an English language class.  

It was an award-winning initiative that’s still running today. 

“That program is all about empowering residents” she says. 

“It gives them a little step up to help make a local activity that bit better, and help more people connect. That’s really important.” 

Getting to know SGCH 

As she gets to know community housing, Tamara is starting by spending time with the people who deliver SGCH’s services. Alongside her visit to St Leonards, she recently met the team at Gibbons Street in Redfern to hear about the support they provide and what matters to the people who live there. 

Being there in person is something she’s known for. 

In her previous role, despite managing a team of 600 people, she travelled to sites every week to meet residents and staff. She says showing up sends a simple message: “You’ve come to my home. It means you value me.” 

That’s the basis of dignity. 

Tamara says she was drawn to SGCH by the chance to keep working with communities and to build on what she learned from working in the seniors living sector. For her, that starts with making time to listen, observe and really pay attention to the voices of the people we house and care for. 

“It’s about the power of working together to make things better. That’s what I really enjoy,” she says.