Fire safety
These videos resources are aimed at housing providers for information on risk management, fire safety and tenant engagement.
Videos on Fire safety:
The Fire Drill
This video guides housing providers through tips on how to run fire drills and other fire prevention tactics.
Fire at Kingston Royal Canadian Legion Villa: How HSC Helped – Part 1
The Royal Canadian Legion Villa in Kingston provides rent-geared-to-income housing to older adults. In 2013, a fire at an adjoining construction site badly damaged the building and residents were displaced for several years. In this video, one resident recalls the experience and how HSC helped.
Fire at Royal Canadian Legion Villa: How HSC Helped – Part 2
On November 23, 2017, seniors at Kingston’s Royal Canadian Legion Villa had a luncheon to celebrate a big victory following a 2013 fire that displaced residents for several years.
Fire at Barrie Housing: How HSC Helped
On April 23, 2018, a fire broke out at a building managed by Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing (Barrie Housing). It was the second fire Barrie Housing had in less than a month. In this video, Barrie Housing staff detail how they dealt with the aftermath and how HSC helped.
Tenant Engagement
Engaging Tenants on Building Safety
Tenant Engagement is essential to having a safer building and community. Holding events and hosting visits are some ways housing providers can provide information on safety to their tenants. Watch the video below to learn more!
Safety Guidelines During the Move-in Process
Move in is a natural time to offer safety information and to review information on contents insurance. This video offers tips to housing providers on how to incorporate important safety tips into the move-in process.
Writing Safety Information for Your Tenants
This video shares tips on creating written information (such as flyers or articles) to help educate your tenants on safety. It also covers the most common questions tenants ask to help you prepare your answers.
Unit Inspections
Housing providers should inspect each unit at least once a year as part of their preventative maintenance plan. This is also a great opportunity to offer tenants one-on-one safety information. Watch the video to learn more.
While cooking fires are typically the most common type of fires in the community housing sector, electrical
fires appear to be increasing in frequency as a result of aging infrastructure. These fires often result in much
longer downtimes for housing providers, which affects residents, staff and a housing provider’s financial
position.
Developing formal electrical preventative maintenance and safety programs can help reduce the likelihood
of electrical system failure and fires. That’s why we developed a short guide that focuses on best practices in electrical maintenance and how to recognize the early signs of problems.
Download the guide below to learn more!
Serving in a leadership role at a housing provider, as a Board Director or an Officer of the corporation, is an important undertaking. By agreeing to be a Director or Officer, one assumes a number of responsibilities for the behaviour and actions of the corporation you represent. However, some Directors and Officers (D&Os) are unaware of the full legal meaning of this – that they can be held personally responsible for liability associated with the duties or actions of the corporation.
To support social housing providers in effectively managing and mitigating Directors and Officers risk, HSC has developed a training guide on the subject. The guide covers the following subject areas:
- Potential liability issues for D&Os
- The role policies and procedures can play in reducing risk exposure
- Sample board policies
- The key elements of D&O liability insurance policies
- Checklists regarding operational risk areas and issues for housing corporations
HSC can deliver facilitated sessions where we work with groups of providers in helping them develop their plans for mitigating and reducing D&O risk. For more details on this, contact us.
For further background, view the HSC webinar, Directors and Officers – How are you Managing Risk?
Contingency plans are an integral part of every organization’s overall risk management strategy.
An emergency plan does not have to be complex; in many cases a simple plan is sufficient. A basic but well-designed plan will help your staff better manage vital tasks in difficult times, accelerate and organize your response, reduce damage and create a more resilient social housing community.
To support Ontario social housing providers in effective risk management, HSC has partnered with Marsh Canada to develop a Contingency Plan Template and Planning Guide.
This Contingency Planning Guide is designed to help Housing Providers and Property Managers develop a Contingency Plan to prepare for and manage adverse incidents to limit the negative impact of disasters on tenants and their business. It guides Housing Providers through the task of developing their own Contingency Plan that reflects your unique community and local resources. This guide will also outline specific areas where awareness and preparedness initiatives could be employed to promote a state of readiness amongst tenants prior to the occurrence of an adverse incident.
The Contingency Plan Procedures and Details Workbook offers workflows, procedures and templates to assist providers in developing their own customized plans.
HSC can deliver a facilitated sessions where we work with providers in filling out the contingency plan template. For more details on this service, contact us.