Staff profile: Nana Lafolua
What do you like about Housing Choices? “Prior to working for Housing Choices I worked for another community housing provider, so I’m quite familiar with the community housing industry. When I first moved to Melbourne from New Zealand and was being interviewed to try and find employment, they actually mentioned Housing Choices as the leading community housing provider to work for. But now that I’m here and I’m in the role, what I really like is it resonates with me in terms of the services we provide. I actually grew up in public housing for part of my life, so being able to provide housing to applicants and to be able to play a part in that service, I feel like it’s a privilege,” she says.
What is a something you’re working towards in your role? “In terms of vacancy management, improving the processes and procedures on how we manage our vacancies. Also, we’re reviewing the rent reviews, because at the moment it’s quite a manual process and we’re wanting to making it more automated, efficient and transparent for residents. Often that’s an area that’s quite confusing to residents in terms of timeliness, documents, paperwork and all of that. We’re working towards more transparency and to be user friendly from a resident perspective,” says Nana. What’s something fun residents don’t know about you? “One of my hobbies is CrossFit. I can deadlift 165kgs and I back squat 140kgs!” she says.
Originally from Dunedin, New Zealand, Nana started working at Housing Choices in July 2022 and joins the organisation as Housing Services Team Leader. With a background in property and projects across both the public and private sectors, Nana brings a wealth of experience to her role. What do you do in your role? “We have a few different functions in the team I manage. We have two staff in the Allocations team, and they manage the vacancies within the affordable portfolio of Housing Choices. Then we also have one staff member who manages the rent review process and another team member who works on the Housing Establishment Fund (HEF). Then we also have two staff on reception. I pretty much oversee all the different areas and often fill in when we have gaps, and that’s what I’m doing currently,” says Nana.
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