Dear Friends and Colleagues
It is with great sadness that in light of the situation with COVID-19, the Housing Studies Association (HSA) must announce that our annual conference in Sheffield (6-8 April 2020) has been postponed. As colleagues will appreciate, this difficult decision has been made after reviewing the situation both internationally and in the United Kingdom. This decision has been taken in conjunction with the HSA Executive Committee, conference organisers and conference convenors at the University of Sheffield.
It is our strong desire to put on a fantastic conference and we know that many people will have been working hard on projects, papers and research with a view to engaging in debate and discussion. For many of you it will be one of the first conferences you will have attended. However, we are sure you understand that we cannot host an event where there are clear risks to the health and wellbeing of our valued members, delegates and support staff. We are also aware of our responsibility to play our part in reducing any added strains on people’s lives who are part of a connected system involving work, caring and wider responsibilities, not to mention the mitigation of stresses on the health and social care system.
We will be in touch shortly to announce new dates for the conference and we hope you will be able to join us. We will also be in touch with our members shortly to make arrangements for our Annual General Meeting.
We would like to thank the Events team at the University of Sheffield who have worked with the HSA Executive Committee for over a year to plan this conference.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding at this very challenging time and we hope to be in touch very soon.
Phil Brown, Helen Taylor and Karly Greene
(Conference 2020 Organisation Team) on behalf of the HSA Executive Committee
