Housing for a multiracial society? 

A year on from the Macpherson report…

And Scottish housing is in the same place as a year ago and decades before that. Despite the efforts of a handful of agencies, our social housing is almost exclusively geared to the needs of a white society.  

Invariably, we are witnessing a movement that is failing in its responsibility to challenge institutionalised racism. It manifests itself in failing race targets, token participation by black & minority ethnic groups on quangos and management committees, predominantly white workforces and an overall decrease in black tenancies at a time when housing needs in the poorest black communities have never been greater: There has been an eleven-fold increase in black overcrowding in the last ten years; a dramatic increase in racist attacks (yet racists keep their homes while black families are forced out); black elders are voting with their feet to avoid the alienation of mainstream sheltered housing. Homeless black families continue to be allocated housing in no-go areas despite their protestations that they face being singled out for racist attacks. Racist attacks are set to get worse as 2500 people fleeing religious and political persecution arrive in Scotland to be housed in a run down Glasgow council estate renowned as a no-go area for visible minorities. On a day-to-day level, black advice agencies find that their complaints of racist stereotyping are often played down or ignored altogether. Despite repeated calls from black groups and housing providers alike, Scottish Homes is still not backing a black and minority ethnic-led housing association. And despite a mass of initiatives by the government to tackle social exclusion and promote partnership, the only black and minority ethnic-led race & housing agency in Scotland (us) has not been invited to sit on the Scottish Housing Advisory Panel alongside its mainstream, national ‘partners’ (Why?). 

The onus of the Macpherson report is on each organisation - from policy makers, funders, membership bodies to grassroots housing providers - to examine their processes, attitudes and behaviour, and the way that racism has developed in their field in order to eliminate its impact and show that they are not disadvantaging any section of the community. Scottish Homes must face the situation and provide funding and support to Scotland’s first black-led housing association. The Scottish Executive must publish a national housing policy geared to the needs and aspirations of a multiracial society and require every public and social landlord to implement a black and minority ethnic housing strategy with proper targets and penalites for non-implementation. And Positive Action in Housing must get its rightful place around the table of the Scottish Housing Advisory Panel.  

(If you would like to know more about the work of Positive Action in Housing, you can contact Lorna Kirkpatrick. Positive Action in Housing, 98 West George Street, Glasgow G2 1PJ, t: 0141 353 2220; f: 0141 353 3882; e: home@paih.org or log onto our website at www.paih.org).

Saturday, 11 March 2000