The Housing Needs of Black and Minority Ethnic Groups. (original) (raw)
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This publication has two main aims. It aims, firstly, to provide an overview of the housing experiences and needs of minority ethnic communities in Britain and secondly to provide a guide to the current key academic publications in the field of race and housing in Britain through an annotated bibliography. These aims address a neglected area of study. The increasing dependence of the majority of households on owner-occupation accessed through the private market has depoliticised and consequently marginalised housing issues within British society. Similarly, academic research has focused on services more overtly funded through the public purse, such as health and education, at the expense of housing research. Indeed, these trends are reflected in the literature review within this publication which draws upon a relatively large literature concerning access to the social rented sector at the expense of an examination of access to private sector resources. The lack of emphasis on housing issues and housing research in Britain is problematic since housing occupies a crucial place in the life chances of all communities. At one level it simply reflects wider advantages and disadvantages experienced by different groups within society. Therefore, wealth, employment, income, education, health and status, amongst other factors, enable and disable access to different tenures and different standards of housing. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasise that housing outcomes are also, in turn, able to confer privileged or restricted access to society's opportunities. This not only occurs because of the direct link between housing and health, including our sense of identity and self-worth, but also because of the ways in which societys resources are unevenly distributed between and within geographical locations. The bibliography in this publication retains a housing focus and is not able, therefore, to reflect all of these inter-relationships. However, literature referring to the employment position of housing staff from minority ethnic communities is included where it appears to affect housing provision. Similarly reports addressing the accountability of housing organisations are also included.
Ethnicity and Housing: Accommodating the differences., 2000
The need for an ethnically sensitive housing policy has been highlighted by academic research which has documented the differential housing outcomes experienced between ethnic groups within national boundaries. A particular cause of concern has been the housing inequalities of minority ethnic communities, who are often concentrated in parts of urban areas which are neglected by the private market, and where other social welfare goods face pressure from high demand. State intervention is often the response to these 'problems', however it may take divergent forms. For example the advocacy of the distribution of additional state resources from the political left, and the advocacy of social control from the political right. These approaches often appear to be paternalistic majority ethnic 'solutions' on behalf of, and for 'the other'. An alternative approach is offered by grassroots activism within minority ethnic communities. Demands for greater resources, but also significantly for more community control over resources, provide an important challenge to the future construction of social policy. They assert the primacy of empowerment and self help over paternalism, and question the validity of social engineering which may emanate from top down policy implementation.
This report outlines the results of a two year’s study to assess the housing and related needs of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Bedfordshire. 1. The research aimed to: • Identify communities and raise awareness amongst them of the services provided by housing associations and local authorities, and how to access those services; • Identify unmet housing needs, and projections of future housing needs (including social renting) within these communities and preferences for meeting them; • Work with communities to enable them to articulate preferences and needs; • Review and develop strategies for greater involvement in service provision; • Identify other benefits for the communities both from taking part in the process and from working with funders to meet identified housing need.
Housing aspirations for a new generation: perspectives from white and south Asian British women
2008
Chapter One Introduction Background and overview Housing needs or housing aspirations? Understanding what people want from housing Housing aspirations of ethnic minority households Research questions Research methods Structure of the report Chapter Two Women and the household • Performing effective community leadership, by local politicians working alongside managers, around community relations and housing issues. • Making strategic investment decisions that facilitate good relations between different ethnic groups.
BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS Improving Asian Access to Social Rented Housing
BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS Improving Asian Access to Social Rented Housing , 2001
The title of this report reflects the importance of the issues it raises for the broader debate about tackling social exclusion. The study aims to discover whether there are barriers inhibiting access to social housing by South Asian households in Bradford and how they might be removed. It is particularly timely given the recent strengthening of the Race Relations Act 1976, and the introduction of the Human Rights Act. Both these developments will have a direct impact on the ways in which local authorities and housing associations operate, by making the differential impact of policies and practices on various communities a matter for investigation and action. These developments make the study relevant to the many cities which have substantial minority ethnic communities. At the time of publication, the summer of 2001, it is also highly topical because of the publicity which has followed violent incidents in some northern cities which allegedly had a racial dimension.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1999
This article examines the implementation of radical race equality initiatives which were introduced at a junior organisational level within a large British housing association. It suggests that these strategies contributed to the increasing numbers of minority ethnic households housed by and applying to the association for accommodation. These successes, however, can be seen as having been achieved at the expense of the quality of the accommodation allocated to minority ethnic households. It is also argued that the strategy paid insufficient attention to ethnic diversity.The article also discusses the change processes which were observed. It suggests that organisations may have ‘organisational power vacuums’ caused by the conscious or unconscious withdrawal of formal authority from an organisational resource area. These are seen as offering ‘opportunity spaces’ for officers including those at a junior organisational level to become ‘change activists’, in essence the opportunity to act independently of the organisation to sponsor radical change in policy and/or practice. However, it is suggested that unless the strategies of change activists are sensitive to the boundaries of an opportunity space and the means of rooting initiatives in organisational custom, convention and/or authority they may not succeed in bringing about radical change. Instead their initiatives may result in ‘static reassertion’, the reversion of the organisation to historic practice and perhaps the creation of greater barriers to future organisational change.
Black and Minority Ethnic Communities and Homelessness in Scotland
2004
The research was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to examine the use and provision of homelessness ... s Common housing problems include difficulties in obtaining information about housing options and rights due to language differences, literacy issues, lack of ...
Officer discretion and minority ethnic housing provision
Journal of Housing and The Built Environment, 1997
Since the 1980s housing associations have supplanted local authorities as the major providers of new social housing in Britain. This development has been criticised as threatening to introduce particularism and socially constructed definitions of deserving/undeserving status in place of democratically accountable provision. However this article argues that fears about the actions of “unaccountable” housing associations are based upon a falsely grounded nostalgia for local state housing. For example the concept of local authority accountability has been largely notional for minority ethnic communities who have been marginalised and excluded from access to local authority housing. Therefore the potential for housing associations to develop more responsive policies is examined. Primary research from a major British housing association is used to focus upon the opportunities and constraints facing minority ethnic communities as a result of the discretionary role of social gatekeepers. However, it is noted that even the sensitive use of officer discretion may still represent paternalistic provision for minority ethnic communities. Consequently it is suggested that state provision throughout Europe should respond to difference by embracing the potential of a pluralistic housing policy. This would include facilitating opportunities for minority ethnic self-provision of housing alongside universal provision.