Silence in our sector: Disabled voices in social housing

The Better Social Housing Review (BSHR) and access to equal housing outcomes

The first recommendation ‘Every housing association, and the sector as a whole, should refocus on their core purpose and deliver against it.’ highlighting how the housing reality of residents who are individuals already facing discrimination and structural inequalities, such as people with disabilities and those from black and minority ethnic communities, is worse. The BSHR recommends that the need is to go back to basics and core purpose to ensure equal housing outcomes for all.

Data and disability

Data shows that 80% of disabled people become disabled during their working lives and 2/3 disabled people do not have a visible disability. Given the systemic barriers to diagnosis, these numbers are envisaged to be much higher. As important as data is, it does tend to be the stopping point in the social housing sector when it comes to disability.

Medical definition of disability vs social definition of disability

The medical definition focuses on the disability as being a problem that causes problems for the individual when it comes to society.

The social definition focuses on how it is the barriers in society that are disabling.

Social housing and accessible homes 

Accessibility continues to be low on the priority list in social housing, with the little conversations that take place actually turning into action and impact. To put this into perspective:

• Only 9% of housing stock in England is classed as accessible
• 1/5 homes that have 1 disabled resident are classes as non-decent
• Although at the planning stage many new builds meet M43 standards, by the time they are complete, the elements that make it m43 tend to have been value engineered out
• When it comes to existing stock, that is a different challenge because of limitations to what can be done
• Often the sector views a disability-inclusive approach in terms of customer service delivery as costly, ignoring the fact that research shows the spending power of disabled households with the Purple Pound highlighting the loss to organisations due to their lack of accessibility.

What is accessible housing? 

Accessible housing does not just mean a house that meets the resident’s needs in the home, but rather the wider social and professional impact. Not having an accessible home can limit health, study, career and social possibilities, meaning that an individual’s whole life is impacted if they are unable to live in an accessible home. 

Disabled voices and accessible social housing

Disabled voices are often excluded from the very conversations that should be centred around them, meaning any projects, plans or initiatives around disability that don’t centre disabled individuals’ input, are destined to fall short of what they need to be. Even within the social housing sector workforce, disability voices are under-represented, with NHF research focusing on England finding that only 9% of the sector’s workforce have a disability or long-term condition compared to 24% of the population and 29% of residents. Disabled voices should be included at all levels of social housing associations, including boards, however, one of the biggest barriers to this is the stigma around disability and the fear of disclosure.

Breaking the silence and taking action

Data shows the need is there and the benefits for all parties if disabled voices are platformed and inclusive plans built into strategy, planning and delivery. But how do we get there? Although it is easy to say, we need to stop talking and take action, this only applies to organisations that have already had and developed disabled lead conversations and projects, if you haven’t got past the data stage then talking, is where you need to start. Only by having more conversations, and becoming more educated about disability and accessibility, can we start to tackle not only the stigma surrounding disability, but take the step to move from words to actions.

Just like every aspect of EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion), there is no one-size fits all solution, but you must also be wary of getting too focused on an individual-by-individual basis where this isn’t the best solution. And just like with every aspect of EDI, mistakes will be made, it is acknowledging them and learning from them that matters. EDI should not be a tick-box exercise, nor a ‘nice to have’ it should be a case of raising awareness and putting things into practice, every day.

Get involved:
Roadmap to equality: an inclusive future  – aimed at board members
National EDI networks for CEO’s and EDI professionals – aimed leaders

If you’d like to find out more about getting involved with disability in social housing, please get in touch with melanie.beverley-hughes@hact.org.uk