Our Vision and Mission
To ensure every migrant and refugee in London has a good home, is empowered to safeguard their individual rights, have their voice heard and make a full contribution to their community.
To provide the best housing services to our customers while developing the potential of migrants and refugees in London.
Our Values
To achieve our vision and mission, we have adopted five overarching values which underpin our business aims and objectives. These are:
- To create trust through listening and by acting transparently, with openness, honesty, and integrity
- To treat everyone with fairness and respect. Equality, compassion and support for our residents, staff and stakeholders are at the heart of the way we work
- To be accountable and accept the responsibility for the decisions we make
- To provide excellent customer care and understand the needs of our customers
- To maintain innovation and act creatively to meet the organisation’s aspirations.
Our Journey
We have achieved much since our inception in 1979 as the African Refugee Housing Action Group Limited. We were set up to respond to an urgent need for housing and support amongst Britain’s fast-growing refugee and migrant communities. From the outset, refugees, and migrants themselves have been active in shaping and developing the organisation.
By 1981 Arhag was housing its first tenants in short-life properties before referring them on to permanent homes with local authorities and other housing associations. As partnerships with local authorities evolved, Arhag began to build and manage its own homes. In the early years, the majority of refugees and migrants Arhag helped were from Africa, but as needs have changed, so have the communities we work with.
In the 40 years since we were founded, the number of properties we own and manage has grown to over 900 including one supported housing scheme for refugees and migrants. We seek continuously to improve the quality of our services to residents and the communities in which we work. We provide important services to a highly diverse client base and strive to make quality homes available that residents can afford. Through our resident and community engagement initiatives, we work to achieve our Mission Statement.
Our Governance
Currently our Board comprises 10 independent members, including the Chair. There are two Committees of the Board the Audit & Risk Committee and the Operations Committee.