Many of us whose parents came to live in the UK in the 1950s and 60s will have heard stories from them of how they were welcomed by those dreadful notices on windows and doors; ‘No dogs, No blacks, No Irish’.
The level of racism and discrimination experienced by black people, many of who were invited by the British government to come over and work, became the catalyst for the first wave of race legislation passed through by Parliament.
Thankfully, it is now illegal to discriminate and put up such signs on doors and windows. However, when we analyse the housing divide that currently exist, one wonders whether the housing situation for many black and minority ethnic (BME) people in general has actually improved. The harsh economic realities experienced by many in the UK has made life even more difficult, particularly for newly arrived black communities, who are living in some of the poorest housing conditions. The recent fire in Camberwell’s Lakanal House in London, was a vivid and real testament to this. You did not need statistics to tell us that most of the residents caught up or killed in the fire were from the ethnic minorities. Speaking of statistics, it is worthwhile to point out a few.
Some hard facts that can not be ignored…
According to the latest government statistics, 21% of people accepted as homeless are from the BME community, which is almost 3 times of the BME population (11%). Black African and Black Caribbean accounted for 10% of those accepted as homeless. Black Africans, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean are known to be heavily concentrated in the social (council) housing sector. Also, 70% of the BME population live in the most deprived areas in the UK, compared to 40% of the population as a whole.
What we are saying here is that majority of non-whites in the UK are, in fact, living their daily lives in the poorest areas of the country. As a result, their life chances and choices in education, health, employment and other socio-economic indices are adversely affected. In other words, living in the poorest areas will equate to attending the poorest schools, attaining low educational standards and suffering from poor health, for majority of black and Asian people. It has to be said that despite the levels of poverty in existence among many the BME community, there have been significant progress made in educational attainments in some these groups, for example, Africans and Chinese.
However, the picture overall is still fairly grim. It is particularly acute in London where, for example, 80% of the Black Africans population live. According to a 2008 Housing Corporation paper on BME Housing needs and aspirations, Black Africans and Bangladeshi live in more overcrowded housing conditions in the social housing sector than any other ethnic group. Research has consistently shown that overcrowding is associated with poor health, poor educational attainments and over-representation within the criminal justice system. For example, we now have more black young people in prison than in Universities in the UK.
Many Black Africans, in particular, may be reading this and may even express surprise at these depressing statistics. After all, quite a number of Africans are emerging in the UK as successful doctors, lawyers and civil servants. However, the reality could not be further from the truth. The economically empowered African owner-occupier may be championed within his or her community, but in proportion with the whole population, progress is still very minimal.
A recent Department for Local Communities publication, ‘Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society’, progress report, states that on 2007, Black Africans have the lowest levels of owner-occupier amongst its midst at 26% followed by Bangladeshi at 37%. For those not in the social housing, the private sector does not offer much in terms of quality housing. The housing charity, Shelter, estimates that BME communities are over-represented in the private rented sector and twice as likely as white communities to live in unfit housing conditions.
Misinformation and myths on ‘who gets what’…
Despite these grim facts, which have never being reported by the likes of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, misinformation and untruths continue to be peddled by the mainstream media. What they chose to focus on are the baseless facts about the number of immigrants getting preferential treatment in housing allocations.
Of course, this is the line claimed by the extreme right wing and racist British National Party. The reality is that immigrants come very low in terms of treatment and priority on the housing ladder – be it social housing or private. Early this month (July), the influential think-tank, Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR) conducted a research for the Equality & Human Rights Commission and found that only 1.8% of social housing tenants have move to the UK in the last 5 years, and nine out of ten people living in social housing are UK-born citizens. According to the report, most new arrivals are ineligible to social housing because of their immigration status.
This hugely contradicts Gordon Brown’s latest housing manifesto in his recent ‘Building Britain’s Future’ publication, where he seems to be echoing his ‘British jobs for British people’ phrase used a couple of years ago and hijacked by the likes of the BNP. Now, he says it is about ‘local houses for local people’. One might say, in principle, there is nothing wrong in that, but I can’t help thinking that the anti-immigrant and racist media lobby will seize on this latest Brown rhetoric and interpret it in a way that is likely to discriminate against immigrants, particularly those who are ‘non-white’ and live in localities hostile to immigrants.
IPPR identified, as part of their research, (and this something we have known for some time), that the myth about the housing allocation process being unfair to white British people is at the core of discriminatory behaviour which often causes tensions and conflicts in local areas.
Where de we go from here?
So how can things improve for black communities in relation to housing? Well, the first step is ensuring fair and equality access to information in the first instance! Many the black and other minority communities just don’t know where to turn to for quality housing support and advice, apart from the local councils – and generally, the councils can be hostile towards those with housing problems.
The likes of Shelter, who provide free legal housing advice and campaign for more affordable housing to be built, do their best to promote their services. In its Advice Gap research report published in 2007, Shelter identified that there is an acute lack of awareness about housing rights, advice and information amongst BME communities. As they say, ‘information is power’ and it is a key mechanism in accessing vital knowledge on what to do to better one’s quality of life. So while government and non-government agencies are trying hard to reach ‘excluded’ groups, I believe the onus is on all minorities to be better informed of our housing rights and proactively seek information that will provide us with better quality of life. The next step after this, is to be united on challenging perceived discrimination in the housing system, even if it does not directly affect us.
We all have to work together and seek appropriate avenues to challenge racist stereotypes of immigrants and such like. We should collectively come together within our community, social and faith networks of lobby hard against those in the mainstream media and others who feed people with their malicious stories. We should challenge government to invite us to the policy table in order to influence their agenda and promote policies that will help improve the housing situation for majority in the BME communities. It is important to stress that the key to success in doing this, is to be united in our common purpose – to eradicate discrimination and inequality in housing.
The third and final step I would suggest is to be actively involved, either at local, regional and national level, in service improvement and delivery in housing. It should not end with just lobbying. We should continue to demand our involvement in how local, regional and national housing policy is shaping the lives of our community. The best place to start is at local level. Also, find out ways of engaging with voluntary and community organisations, particularly ones with remit on housing, such as housing associations and other housing services agencies. Find out (from the internet or local library) which ones are in your local area, and I bet they will be happy to hear from you, as they were finding it hard to reach you anyway!
We must not be ignorant about the present economic challenges currently impacting on peoples’ lives. It is almost safe to say black communities will fare worse in terms of public service delivery, and housing is a key public service area. By being aware of the realities, we can begin to effectively increase our seldom heard voice and challenge the socio-economic and institutional structures that create barriers to better housing of all ethnic minorities in the UK.
