Three weeks ago, the Nationwide Foundation hosted the launch of a new research report – a collaboration between Claude Hendrickson MBE (Leeds Community Homes), Henri Baptiste (Pathway Housing Solutions), Tom Moore (University of Liverpool) and Yael Arbell (Sheffield Hallam University), who all spoke at the launch event in central London.
‘Community-led housing for all: Opportunities and challenges for black and minority ethnic community-led housing’ is the result of a chance meeting between Claude and Henri several years ago, when they both attended the same training course to become accredited Community-Led Housing advisors. Disappointed with both the lack of ethnic diversity in their cohort and the omission from the course content of the significant contributions made by black and minoritised ethnic communities to community-led housing (CLH) in the UK, they began thinking about how they could make a change. At the launch event, Claude talked attendees through a brief history of the ways these communities had used CLH as a means of enhancing and expanding the housing solutions that were available to them. However, whilst a lot of funding went into CLH, the team highlighted that the outputs had not benefitted people from black and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.
The ‘Community-led housing for all’ report is the product of Claude and Henri’s hard work, along with the rest of the project team. Having struggled to get support for the project (“who’s going to take seriously the two black Mitchell brothers looking for funding?” – Henri’s words, not mine!), with a lack of recognition from organisations that there was even a need for it, the recommendations from the report are more important than ever. They come with a structure of accountability within them, and the team were all keen to emphasise the need for proactivity when it comes to next steps.
The recommendations are split into those for different groups of stakeholders in the housing sector – CLH infrastructure bodies, CLH funders, central government, local and combined authorities and housing infrastructure bodies. Whilst housing associations don’t have their own explicit section, the report makes clear they are considered key development partners and potential enablers. The launch event made clear that CLH is at best not necessarily well-understood in the sector, or worse, understood but overlooked. Key CIH and NHF reports calling for change, such as ‘Homes at the Heart’ and ‘The housing crisis: what will happen if we don't act?’, make no mention of community-led housing as a potential way forward, forming what Henri described as a “neat umbrella, but only part of the housing ecosystem”. The word innovation is used often in the sector (rarely particularly accurately) but the project team urged housing associations to treat this as an open and honest opportunity to be more creative and genuinely innovative – both with ways of working and potential solutions to alleviate the housing crisis.
With issues at the intersection of race/ethnicity, social justice and housing inequality persisting, Henri’s call to action was, “Is it in your gift? Is it in your will?”, with the clear message that those who do have it in their gift have a responsibility to also develop the will. Yael’s hope is that the report will “influence reality, not just describe it” - echoed by Tom, who said that one of the strengths of the research is its “action flow”.
As with many things in housing, particularly with the trend towards evidence-based practice, at some point there does need to be ‘a little less conversation, a little more action please…’
Below are links to the report – please share widely.
Article Written by,
Chloe Tilford
Senior Consultant
Housing Diversity Network
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