Ireland member showcase: Katie Madden

For the second in a new series highlighting the career and achievements of our Ireland members, we caught up with Katie Madden to find out more about her role in The Iveagh Trust.

Katie has worked in housing management in both general and supported needs for over eleven years, with her most recent role as head of housing for the Iveagh Trust.

She manages the housing and estates departments which cover the greater Dublin area and their stock now exceeds 1889 units.

We asked Katie a few questions to find out more about her work. 

What does a normal day look like for the head of housing? 

My day will usually start when I check my work phone and have some housing queries from my staff or sometimes from the tenants themselves and I always spend some time responding to people before I log on. However, if there is a housing emergency, I may not get time to log on to my computer at all. A housing emergency could be a fire or a major ASB incident. Every day is different.

On days that I am in the office, we will have our housing meetings to catch up on issues that are affecting the team and to discuss more complex cases. I may also have to attend meetings with other departments like property services or assets or may have to attend a scheme to support the estates manager or housing officer with issues.

What challenges do you face in your role?

The biggest challenge I face is trying to protect housing and estates staff from some of the risks they face in this ever-changing society as they are becoming increasingly difficult. Staff safety and wellbeing is my top priority - they look after the tenants, and I look after them.

What aspects of your role do you find the most rewarding?

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing a new scheme tenanted, to follow its progress from new build to fully tenanted is a long process but a highly enjoyable one. Each scheme has its own set of tenants who form a new community which the Iveagh Trust can be proud of.

What advice would you give to anyone considering a career like yours?

The main advice I would give to someone is to be involved with as many aspects of housing management as they can, whether that be in rents, allocations, ASB or maintenance. It is important to experience all parts of the housing function of the organisation to lead your team to where it needs to be.