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Strong Roots to Grow From...
History & Achievements 1989 - 1995
Briefly...
In the 1950s and 1960s, the provision of suitable housing for people from
ethnic minority communities was not considered a priority. The consequences of
this policy continue to be felt today.
In Scotland, years of research consistently documented the pressing
housing needs within the ethnic minority communities.
Research also shows that people from ethnic minority communities tend to
suffer disproportionately worse housing conditions than the indigenous
community. These include:
Today still, only around one per cent of public sector tenants comprise
people from visible ethnic minority communities. We estimate that even fewer are
employed within the Scottish housing movement.
going beyond the rhetoric of equal opportunities
In 1989, following criticisms of their record of housing people from ethnic
minority communities, four inner city housing associations in Glasgow
commissioned research - jointly funded by the Commission for Racial Equality and
the Housing Corporation in Scotland - to find out about the housing needs of
ethnic minority communities in their local areas.
The resulting report, entitled Race and Housing in Glasgow: The Role of
Housing Associations (1989) had this to say:
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“If associations do not demonstrate accountability and go beyond the
rhetoric of equal opportunities and produce evidence to show that they are
serving all sections of the population and not only white residents, ...
this will inevitably lead to the formation of ethnic minority housing
associations.
-
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"... should community based housing associations "deny"
equal access to ethnic minority families over the next five years, the
demand for this type of public housing could readily emerge. Ethnic minority
housing associations will become a reality... and the local community
associations will have failed to meet the challenges posed by our research
findings. Scottish Homes, unlike the Housing Corporation in England and
Wales, has yet no declared policy on ethnic minority housing associations...
"
the next five years
The research destroyed many myths about why ethnic minorities do not live in
public and social rented housing.
The Housing Corporation in Scotland responded with the publication of its
first Guidance Note on 'Race & Housing'. The housing associations involved
used it to justify the creation of the Race and Housing Project. The project had
two basic aims:
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to develop better links between ethnic minority communities and the
participating housing associations, and,
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to develop greater awareness in the ethnic minority communities of the
existence and function of housing associations.
In January 1992, the Race & Housing Project ran Scotland's first Race
& Housing Conference. This Conference sparked off a debate about whether we
need ethnic minority-run housing associations in Scotland.
1992: Housing Equality Action Unit
Recognising that race & housing was a national issue for the whole
housing association movement, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
took over and extended the original Race and Housing Project incorporating the
element of equal opportunities. The Housing Equality Action Unit (HEAU) -
operating under the umbrella of the Scottish Federation of Housing Association -
was established for three-year period.
The Project attracted core funding from Scottish Homes, Housing Association
Charitable Trust and Scottish Housing Association Charitable Trust. Comic Relief
and the Tudor Trust provided specific project funding.
outreaching to vulnerable communities
In Summer 1992, HEAU staff visited Hilltown in Dundee.
Ethnic minority tenants, mainly of the local council, complained about
problems of racial harassment and lack of suitable housing for families in safe
areas.
The shortage of private ethnic minority landlords in Dundee made it even more
difficult for ethnic minority families to live in multiracial 'safe' areas.
The local housing associations had very few ethnic minority tenants or family
housing.
HEAU carried out a series of public meetings in Dundee at which
councillors, housing workers and people from the communities, and the media were
present. Following those public meetings, HEAU helped members of the
communities in the affected areas to set up the Dundee Asian Housing Forum (DAHF).
Before HEAU's involvement the council had all but ignored the racial
harassment problems of its Ethnic Minority tenants. This outreach work brought
local and national media attention to the problems of racial harassment against
the predominantly Asian communities in Hilltown.
HEAU continued to work with Forum members to put racial harassment onto the
agenda of the local council and other housing providers.
Worried about the bad publicity, the Council set up the Ethnic Minorities in
Housing Working Party and changed its missive of let to incorporate racial
harassment as specific grounds for eviction.
And for the first time, the Council’s Housing Plan mentioned people from
ethnic minority communities in the Council's Housing Plan. In 1995, Dundee
secured its first eviction of a tenant for racial harassment. The police also
doubled their presence around Asian shops and on the Hilltown estate.
Further outreach work continued in the spring of 1993, when HEAU began work
with the Bangladeshi communities living in the Gorgi-Dalry area of Edinburgh.
While local housing agencies cited football racism as the main problem, HEAU
found that the view of the predominantly Bangladeshi communities in Gorgi-Dalry
was quite different.
Families complained about the lack of suitable housing in the area. HEAU also
uncovered a stark age difference between spouses within the Bangladeshi
communities, where relatively young women were often married to men of
near-pensionable age. What would be the response of housing providers providing
traditional sheltered housing suitable for singles, couples and no more, to
families in these situations?
Another major finding was the discovery that every private ethnic minority
tenant interviewed had an ethnic minority landlord. Reasons given by the tenants
for this were: 'white landlords do not rent to Asians' HEAU relayed
its findings to the local housing providers, who were prioritising building
homes for single people in the area.
The outreach work carried out by HEAU underlined the need for us to:
This plank of HEAU's work was crucial to the development of Positive Action
in Housing Ltd because it was about meeting people in their environment and
encouraging community strategies from the people living in those communities,
rather than primarily from external agencies.
for the record...
In November 1993, an investigation, Housing Associations and Racial Equality
in Scotland 1994, carried out by the Commission for Racial Equality revealed
that Scottish housing associations came a poor third behind their Welsh and
English counterparts in tackling racial equality.
Scottish housing providers lacked racial harassment policies and even in
multiracial areas, were under-representative of ethnic minority tenants, staff
and committee members.
The Commission for Racial Equality criticised Scottish Homes for not taking
enough of a lead on Race Equality and Equal Opportunities.
The Commission recommended that Scottish Homes should devise a policy to
support and set up ethnic minority led housing associations to tackle
under-representation, historical disadvantage and current racial discrimination
in the Scottish housing movement.
In its response to Scottish Homes' draft policy, "Ethnic Minority
Housing" (Dec.1993), the Commission also warned that if Scottish Homes did
not make tangible progress by February 1997 to address racial inequality and the
under-representation of ethnic minorities in the Scottish housing movement, then
it would lead to grave doubts about Scottish Homes' commitment to setting up an
effective race equality policy.
It would also mean that Scottish Homes would not be fulfilling its duties
under the Race Relations Act 1976.
Scottish Homes...
In November 1994, at HEAU's Fourth Race & Housing Conference, Scottish
Homes launched its first "Ethnic Minority Housing" policy.
Described by Scottish Homes as its flexible approach, the policy contained
plans to:
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Appoint a race equality officer
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Set up a Positive Action Training in Housing (PATH) scheme, and
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Target 1.25% of the annual development budget to ethnic minority housing
(from 1997), and various other measures.
... ignored the Commission for Racial Equality's recommendation
However, the national housing agency ignored the Commission for Racial
Equality's recommendation to support and fund a strategy for the setting up of
ethnic minority led housing associations in Scotland.
This was unsurprising.
In their responses to Scottish Homes' draft policy, many ethnic minority
organisations described the presentation and analysis of the black led housing
associations' debate as unfair, unbalanced and dwelling upon often repeated and
discredited notions of such organisations.
The draft policy put a great store by research and yet more research into
ethnic minority housing needs yet appeared to resort to using myths and
misconceptions as arguments to invalidate ethnic minority-led housing
associations in favour of its "flexible" approach.
strong
roots to grow from...
In its three-year life, the Housing Equality Action Unit has:
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run four major race & housing conferences
-
published several best practice publications for housing providers,
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worked with ethnic minority communities to develop community-based
campaigns and support groups and brought national media attention to the
problems of racial harassment and unsuitable housing facing ethnic
minorities in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow provided an incisive race
perspective to Scottish Homes' policy development work, and, through working
with ethnic minority organisations nationally caused Scottish Homes to
develop its first ethnic minority housing policy.
Because of the Housing Equality Action Unit, Scottish ethnic minority
communities are actively demanding their say in how housing resources - financed
by multiracial taxes - are handled by housing providers and Scottish Homes,
whether through the setting up of housing associations or by sitting on
mainstream Housing Association committees.
The Housing Equality Action Unit's contribution to actively raising the
profile of and tackling the acute housing needs of people from ethnic minorities
living in Scotland has in no way been a small one. Which gives Positive Action
in Housing strong roots to grow from...
1995: independent and member-led...
Towards the end of HEAU's three year life, the Scottish Federation of Housing
Associations carried out a full assessment of the value of the Unit's work and
how best the remaining work should be carried out, if at all.
Following widespread consultation with housing associations and ethnic
minority organisations, the SFHA's Equal Opportunities Working Party concluded
that HEAU’s race & housing work was sufficiently developed to warrant the
setting up of an independent membership-led organisation.
On Monday June 23rd, 1995, the Lord Provost of Glasgow City Council hosted a
civic reception to formally launch Positive Action in Housing Limited - the
Scottish Ethnic Minorities Housing Agency.
1995
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