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A new anthology from Commonweal Housing has brought into focus the people at the sharpest end of the housing crisis. Connie Muttock explains
With rising rents, disappearing social housing, thousands sleeping on the streets and homeownership an often impossible dream, it’s unsurprising that the UK is facing a deepening housing crisis. But the people who have been hit the worst are those locked out of safe and secure housing and facing several overlapping challenges.
They are at the sharpest end of social injustice and the housing crisis, and are the focus of Locked Out, a new anthology of essays published by Commonweal Housing this week. The essays cover a range of subjects, including violence against women and girls, the criminal justice system, and periods of transition, but there is one central message: the most marginalised are hit hardest by the housing crisis.
The essays’ authors repeatedly show how limited housing options have become a growing issue for their organisations, with many adapting the services they offer to meet increasing need among clients. Become, a charity for children in care and young care leavers, highlights that housing is the biggest issue for which young care leavers seek advice, with 26% having sofa-surfed and 14% having slept rough. The Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance points out that 68% of femicides occur in women’s own homes.
Housing and social injustice often collide in devastating ways. BAME communities are increasingly more likely to face homelessness; LGBTQ+ people can face discrimination when they access housing or homelessness support; and 90% of wheelchair users struggle to find accessible housing in the private rented sector.
If there is no roof over your head or you live in an unsafe home, it can be nearly impossible to move forward into long-term stability. Many specialist charities cannot support their clients with the other challenges they face – instead diverting already stretched resources to housing advice and support.
“Housing providers must adapt to the needs of people facing social injustice, just as social injustice organisations are having to provide support with housing”
Many of these specialist, often smaller, organisations were hit hard by the pandemic, but they told me how important it was to still be raising these issues – particularly as lockdown has shown just how important homes can be.
From domestic abuse survivors locked down with their abusers, to people leaving prison with nowhere to go, to unemployed homeless people facing the oncoming recession, perhaps the only aspect of this crisis that has not been ‘unprecedented’ is that those already facing injustice have been hit the hardest.
What the pandemic has shown us is that smaller, specialist charities are often the best equipped to adapt to crises. They were indispensable in their reach and contact when food parcels had to be delivered, rough sleepers had to be housed almost overnight and messages of support needed to be shared with survivors of domestic abuse. They can be incredibly nimble and resourceful, having grown accustomed to running services on a shoestring, and often have the strongest understanding of the day-to-day needs of the people in their locality.
We all have a vested interest in this expertise outliving the pandemic – and we need to see urgent investment to ensure it does. Among other pressures, an inability to raise funds in traditional ways has meant that charities with a lower profile are struggling: almost half of the organisations surveyed by voluntary sector champion NCVO reported an increase in demand for their services but a 48% decline in income.
There is no doubt that we need urgent investment in genuinely affordable and social housing to tackle the shortage in the UK – the National Housing Federation says we need 145,000 new social homes every year.
But we must also strengthen positive partnerships between housing providers, local authorities and these smaller specialist charities. Housing providers must adapt to the needs of people facing social injustice, just as social injustice organisations are having to provide support with housing.
As we see in these essays, housing can exacerbate social injustice. But in a world where safe, secure housing is available and affordable, it can also be an arm of social justice. That’s the world we need to work towards as we move forward from the coronavirus crisis – one where everyone in society can access the housing they need to live fulfilling lives.
Connie Muttock, policy and communications manager, Commonweal Housing