How does the availability of social housing influence wellbeing in the local population? Flashcards
How does availability of social housing influence wellbeing?
Anecdotes
(Fenton, 2015)
“Our home is not just a dwelling place. It should be a place of comfort, shelter, safety and warmth; a place to raise family, welcome friends, and a springboard for all our other daily activities. In short it is the main setting for our health throughout our lives”
“Imagine leaving your home abruptly and never returning to it again. Or being told that you are moving house tomorrow and you have no control over where you are moving to and how much it will cost.”
Private vs social rented sector
Private rented sector has more poor quality housing and at a higher cost
Gaining access to social housing is in itself a challenge- need a house to get a job.
What is the bedroom tax?
Shelter, 2017
A cut in housing benefit if you live in a council or housing association home and are classed as having a spare bedroom.
Why may get less housing benefit…?
If you’re a council or housing association tenant.
You have more bedrooms than the rules allow.
You’re of working age.
The amount of net rent is cut by:
gov.co.uk, n.d.
14% if you have one spare bedroom
25% if you have two or more spare bedrooms
What is the right to buy scheme?
Allowed people to purchase council-owned homes after they’ve lived in them and when they’ve earnt enough
What is the issue of the right to buy scheme?
The housing stock was not replaced – now we have a shortage of council housing in many parts of the UK
Lack of appropriate housing means people have to move, possibly outside of their current area; pay for ‘spare’ rooms
(Hopps, 2016)
Families placed in homes outside London has risen tenfold from 2010-11.
Between 2010 and 2012, 29 young single mothers had been told that they could be rehoused as far away as Manchester, Birmingham and Hastings after the council cut funding to a homelessness hostel.
Impacts of poor provision
Thompson et al 2017
Uncertainty, precarity is a major psychosocial challenge to well being, and not captured by ONS measures; lack of control over life circumstances/ where they live.
Requires people to engage with providers in correct language of need to gain access- stress.
Documented outcomes of poor provision
Thompson et al 2017
Interviewees reported a direct link between social housing and physical health, well being
“Stress of housing problems made participants unhappy, exacerbated existing medical complaints and sometimes made them ill” (p31)
Ill health and incapacity status used in the social construction of need for social housing, health is a major criteria for access and determination of ‘deservingness’
Ill health is a commodity and outcome of housing problems
(Walker, 2017)
We’re spending less on building social housing than we did in the 90s – there are even more people today on housing waiting lists than then, despite increasingly stringent criteria- David Orr, Housing Chief
We’re spending less on building social housing than we did in the 90s – there are even more people today on housing waiting lists than then, despite increasingly stringent criteria- David Orr, Housing Chief
(Walker, 2017)
UK housing crisis is hitting older people too, not just the young
(Wood, 2017)
Overlooked shortage in suitable housing for older people, stuck in unsuitably large family properties and unable to find smaller homes, and people renting social housing when they need sheltered or supported accommodation.
Overlooked shortage in suitable housing for older people, stuck in unsuitably large family properties and unable to find smaller homes, and people renting social housing when they need sheltered or supported accommodation.
UK housing crisis is hitting older people too, not just the young
(Wood, 2017)
