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Tackling Scottish housing associations’ ‘blind spot’ on race

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations is to launch a major diversity campaign, after a report to the Scottish government criticised landlords’ delivery to BME people. Gavriel Hollander finds out more.  Picture by Getty

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The demographics of Scotland are changing - but are social landlords keeping pace when it comes to delivery to BME people? #ukhousing

Why SFHA is launching a new diversity campaign #ukhousing @sfha_hq

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations is launching a new campaign to tackle the sector's 'blind spot' on race #ukhousing

The demographics of Scotland are changing – and social landlords are not necessarily keeping pace.

Scottish housing associations are the target of a major new diversity campaign being launched in the coming weeks by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) to address what its chief executive, Sally Thomas, describes as “a blind spot”. That blind spot is race.

At the time of the 2011 census, the country’s Asian population stood at 141,000 – or around 2.7% of the population. That may sound small, but just a decade earlier, the census recorded 71,000 Scottish Asians, or 1.4% of the population, meaning that the community almost doubled in 10 years.

Although the next census won’t be carried out for another two years, it has almost certainly grown since. Other BME populations are also increasing.

The SFHA campaign – At Home with Diversity – will involve the establishment of a steering group made up of stakeholders

Such growth raises questions about how well set up the housing sector is to meet the needs of the people it houses.

The SFHA campaign – At Home with Diversity – will involve the establishment of a steering group made up of stakeholders.

It will look to raise awareness of equality and diversity, improve access to housing and services for black and minority ethnic (BME) groups, and increase diversity in the sector.

This initiative from the body representing the bulk of Scottish landlords does not come in a vacuum.

It follows a report delivered to the Scottish government’s joint housing policy and delivery group last November, which lays out in stark language just how far the sector has to travel to meet the needs of BME communities.

As the report says, “in terms of robust, grass roots, effective race equality practice, the housing sector has not [delivered] policies and practice that make a real, tangible difference. It has failed to simplify and streamline service delivery for one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our society.”

But why has Scotland apparently fallen short when it comes to the housing needs of its BME population? And how can it address these shortcomings?


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The report’s author – Rohini Sharma Joshi, equality, diversity and inclusion manager at Trust Housing Association – is in little doubt what the main problem is. “It’s the same as we see everywhere,” she tells Inside Housing. “People finding it difficult to access services and benefits.”

Trust, which manages around 2,500 properties, works particularly closely with Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities around Scotland. And Ms Joshi knows first hand the particular problems those communities increasingly face.

“These vulnerable communities have now been here 50, 60, 70 years,” she explains. “They have not needed services before but they are getting old. When someone passes away, their partner will often feel helpless.

Ms Joshi identifies the language barrier as one of the major stumbling blocks when it comes to landlords connecting with potentially vulnerable tenants

“Nobody planned for them in Scotland – they were too small in number. They now need a lot of help and they don’t know where to go for it.”

Ms Joshi identifies the language barrier as one of the major stumbling blocks when it comes to landlords connecting with potentially vulnerable tenants in these communities. She also believes there is a stigma attached to seeking help from authority figures in some communities,
particularly among older people.

As her report states: “For many [people] who have worked hard over the years to build up a standing in the community, they feel ashamed to expose their vulnerability and their dire need for support.” Of course, this is the kind of support that housing associations are in a perfect position to provide.

One of the things that is missing, Ms Joshi emphasises, is sufficient data to understand the needs of these evolving populations. One of her recommendations to the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group is that it carries out research into the needs of Scotland’s BME groups “to identify gaps” in provision.

Ms Joshi is leading on a two-year research project she established to attempt to make some headway into this data black hole. Researchers, led by Ms Joshi, have interviewed older BME people throughout Scotland, asking about their financial well-being, participation in society and their caring needs and responsibilities. It will collate results in the spring and is expected to publish findings towards the end of the year.

“I would argue the case that we need evidence, because we know something is happening; it is just apparent,” explains Ms Joshi.

There is some evidence in the lack of integration of BME communities into housing providers themselves. An analysis of the Scottish Housing Regulator’s figures on social landlords’ staff for 2017/18 shows that just 1% identify as being from an Asian background and a further 1% are from a black background. More than four-fifths (81%) identify as white.

“We have the acute challenges of housing for an ageing population, and we combine that with a failure to engage with BME tenant groups” – Callum Chomczuk, CIH Scotland

Callum Chomczuk, national director at the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, recognises that this is a problem when it comes to tenant engagement.

“The profession is not accurately reflective of the people that it serves,” he concedes. “We need to think how the profession can better reflect the tenants.”

Crucially, a drive to change the make-up of those who work in the sector should not be seen as a diversity box-ticking exercise, but can make a real change to the quality of service delivered.

Mr Chomczuk continues: “We have the acute challenges of housing for an ageing population, and we combine that with a failure to engage with BME tenant groups.

“The feedback is that where we have professional staff that don’t look or sound like the tenants we are dealing with day to day, it can be hard to have good lines of communication.”

Mr Chomczuk was present when Ms Joshi delivered her report last year, along with the SFHA’s Ms Thomas.

Ms Thomas tells Inside Housing that the presentation made a real impact on what kind of work she wants her organisation and its members to engage in, and was a catalyst for At Home with Diversity.

“I ended up thinking, ‘We’re not doing enough.’ What we’ve done in the past has probably been good but has not been consistently applied and we could do better.

“There may have been things in the past that have led to good outcomes in their own time, but there hasn’t been the consistent follow-through that I think we need.

“We need to think about what we are doing about this not only from the point of view of recruitment and retention of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, but also in terms of tenants and their participation and engagement.”

The two themes of recruitment and engagement are hardly separate to one another. The SFHA seems to have recognised this with its new campaign.

As policy lead Zhan McIntyre explains: “If we are failing to recruit from all communities as a sector we are restricting access to talent and are failing to represent the communities we serve.”

Some housing associations have taken the bull by the horns already.

NG Homes has held regular events with the Chinese, African and Afghan communities in particular

NG Homes – which manages around 6,000 homes, including 4,500 for social rent, in some of the most deprived areas of north Glasgow – has won numerous awards for its work with its BME tenants.

The association has held regular events with the Chinese, African and Afghan communities in particular, starting five years ago, through which it connects community leaders to police, fire and health services.

NG Homes has also actively recruited from these communities. Margaret Fraser, head of community regeneration, tells Inside Housing about a trainee from the Chinese community who helped the landlord connect with a previously ignored group.

“He came into the community regeneration department and through that he told us we had 54 Chinese households,” she remembers. “We asked how we were connecting with them on a community level. They were tenants but they weren’t really getting involved. When we started working with them, they were carrying on with their day-to-day lives but weren’t connecting. Only by connecting can we see if some are struggling.”

The results are tangible for NG Homes. The number of Chinese families among its tenants has grown from 54 to 90 in four years. Meanwhile, it has started work experience programmes for young people from the African and Afghan communities, working alongside existing community organisations.

It has also worked with many of Glasgow’s asylum seekers, through which it receives referrals from other agencies.

It is the kind of virtuous circle that Ms Joshi and others hope can be replicated nationally to improve housing services for ethnic minorities. However, she insists that there needs to be more than just isolated examples to make a difference.

“Service providers are reactive,” she concludes. “They deal with one issue at a time but the understanding and knowledge is not shared and does not lead to policy changes.”

Inclusive Futures

Inclusive Futures

Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote and celebrate diversity and inclusion.

We are pledging to publish diversity audits of our own coverage.

We are also committed to proactively promoting positive role models.

We will do this through the pages of Inside Housing. But we will also seek to support other publications and events organisations to be more inclusive.

Our Inclusive Futures Bureau will provide a database of speakers and commentators from all backgrounds, for use by all media organisations.

We are also challenging readers to take five clear steps to promote diversity, informed by the Chartered Institute of Housing’s diversity commission and the Leadership 2025 project.

Click here to read more or to sign up for more information

INSIDE HOUSING’S PLEDGES

We will take proactive steps to promote positive role models from under-represented groups and provide information to support change.

We pledge to:

Publish diversity audits: We will audit the diversity of the commentators we feature. We will formalise this process and publish the results for future audits twice a year.

Promote role models: We will work to highlight leading lights from specific under-represented groups, starting in early 2018 with our new BME Leaders List.

Launch Inclusive Futures Bureau: We will work with the sector to compile a database of speakers, commentators and experts from under-represented groups. The bureau will be available to events organisers, media outlets and publications to support them to better represent the talent in the sector.

Take forward the Women in Housing Awards: Inside Housing has taken on these successful awards and will work to grow and develop them.

Convene Inclusive Futures Summit: Our new high-level event will support organisations to develop and implement strategies to become more diverse and inclusive.

THE CASE FOR CHANGE

34%

of housing association chief executives are female

1%

of housing association executives have a disability

1.6%

of housing association board members are LGBT

Women make up 46% of the UK workforce, but Inside Housing research found that they are under-represented on housing association boards (36%), executive teams (39%) and among chief executives (34%).

Almost a fifth of working-age adults have a disability (18%), yet associations reported only 1% of executives and 4.5% of board members with a disability. Many were unable to provide details.

Nationwide, 14% of the working-age population come from a BME background, climbing to 40% in London and Birmingham. Yet our research found that 6.8% of board members identified as BME, compared with 4.5% of executives.

Statistics on representation of LGBT people in the workforce are in short supply, but official statistics suggest that 2% of the total UK population identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, rising to 4.1% for 16 to 24-year-olds. Our survey found that 1.6% of board members and 10 executives were LGBT – but most organisations were unable to provide figures.

Click here to read the full research

THE INCLUSIVE FUTURES CHALLENGE

Inside Housing calls on organisations to sign up to an inclusive future by taking five steps:

Prioritise diversity and inclusion at the top: commitment and persistence from chief executives, directors and chairs in setting goals and monitoring progress.

Collect data on the diversity of your board, leadership and total workforce and publish annually with your annual report. Consider gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age, and representation of tenants on the board.

Set aspirational targets for recruitment to the executive team, board and committees from under-represented groups.

Challenge recruiting staff and agencies to ensure that all shortlists include candidates from under-represented groups.

Make diversity and inclusion a core theme in your talent management strategy to ensure you support people from under-represented groups to progress their careers.

The Inside Housing Diversity Audit: how diverse has our coverage been?

The Inside Housing Diversity Audit: how diverse has our coverage been?

The media plays a key role in championing diverse role models, so we designed a project to measure Inside Housing’s track record.

 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RESULTS

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