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Helping journalists portray social housing tenants fairly
A group of housing associations is working to produce a guide for journalists on how to avoid stereotyping. Catherine Little explains more
We all stereotype. Making assumptions is a human way to make sense of the world around us. But at its worst, that can lead to pejorative stereotypes which create stigma.
There are plenty of tenants who can tell of their experience of this stigma. Like 18-year-old Courtney, a tenant of Soha Housing, who founded a charity that gives thousands of Christmas gifts to people who may feel lonely at that time.
She was bullied at school because of who owned her home.
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Or the chair of Soha Housing’s board who found people wanted to talk to him as a plumber, but stepped back physically when they found out where he lived in his village.
Research by the British Future thinktank and others shows you can’t tackle stereotypes by repeating them, so I’ll give no credence to the lazy stereotypes too often repeated on our screens and in print.
Tenants and staff from 14 housing organisations wanted to do something concrete to try and change the narrative around people living in social housing.
So we’ve put together a campaign called Benefit to Society, which includes research, social media and working with journalists.
“Tenants and staff wanted to do something concrete to try and change the narrative.”
Most recently, we have collected the views of more than 450 tenants on the issue of negative stereotyping by the media. The idea is to collate these views to inform a guide for journalists who want to report fairly on social housing and tenants.
Around 25 tenants got together to think through the results and to put together the shape of the guide.
It’s being written by Rachel Broady, equalities officer at the Manchester and Salford branch of the National Union of Journalists, and will present to journalists the impact of these negative stereotypes on real people’s lives.
It also acts as a call to action both for the media to look at the real facts around who lives in social housing (70% are working or retired; 23% are unable to work due to disability or caring responsibilities, according to the most recent English Housing Survey) and to look for the real stories, not rely on lazy stereotypes.
The tenant editorial group believes that social housing is a step up, not something that holds you back: having somewhere decent and affordable to live lets you get on with the rest of your life.
The survey has just closed and the results in full will be published in early autumn. The guide for journalists will be launched the week before Housing Day, along with a photo bank for picture desks of great images of homes and tenants.
“The tenant editorial group believes that social housing is a step up, not something that holds you back.”
But before we all pat ourselves on the back and hope the media sorts itself out, I’d also suggest that we need a little self-reflection among those of us working in social housing.
How do we present tenants when we talk to the media or put stories out on Twitter?
What’s the balance of positive stories about volunteers against how we are tackling the small number of anti-social behaviour or tenancy fraud cases?
How many times have we talked about ‘turning people’s lives around’? Of course we should be proud of the work we do to support people, but plenty of our tenants just need somewhere affordable to live in a broken housing market.
And if someone’s life needed turning around, shouldn’t they be the one taking the credit – hopefully having had plenty of support?
How often do we step back and let our tenants to do the talking? Surely tenants should be our best advocates?
When we talk about the reputation and the brand of the sector, whose voice are we promoting? Those who work in the sector or those who make their homes here?
That’s why it’s important that this project has both tenants and officers on the steering group making decisions about what we will do and how we’ll do it.
Catherine Little, assistant director of strategy and governance, Soha Housing
