Stigma in social housing: Are we asking the right questions?
Nic Bliss, Campaign Director for the Stop Social Housing Stigma campaign
Some three quarters of tenants in social housing say that their landlord treats them fairly and with respect[1]. How come then that the interim results from our national survey of tenants reveal over half of respondents feel stigmatised because of something their landlord does; and overall over two thirds feel generally stigmatised? True, our sample size is a lot smaller[2], but apart from that, what is going on here?
Firstly, tenants responding to our survey are likely to be those who are more aware of standards they could and should be expecting. Secondly, maybe landlords are indeed getting about three quarters of the basics right; if that is the recent experience of tenants, then they might be inclined to answer the somewhat vague and subjective fairness and respect question positively.
Perhaps a more important service measure is about how things that have gone wrong, which will happen in any organisation, are handled. Is the response to explain, empathise and think of creative alternatives? Or is it – at worst – to patronise or disbelieve tenants, and then deflect, deter and rigidly stick to procedure?
Stigmatising culture, attitudes and behaviour
There is now a housing regulator interested in the services tenants receive. Health and safety standards have been ramped up. But the key issue identified in the post Grenfell Green Paper is that many social housing tenants feel like the underclass and this has not been addressed. We are now discussing this issue with MHCLG. The underlying question is whether the cultures, attitudes and behaviours that thought it was OK for a tenant to live in a damp and mouldy home have now changed. What our survey is suggesting is that for many, they haven’t.
This can change. Our experience suggests that many of those working for social landlords want to see change. The challenges lie in the institutional structures that staff work within. There is also the inescapable truth that stigma is multi-faceted and hard baked across our housing frameworks.
Tackling Stigma Journey Planner
The approach we have suggested, and which many landlords are looking at, is our Tackling Stigma Journey Planner. Developed with the University of Durham, Sheffield Hallam University, the CIH, TPAS and YDC, the Journey Planner is a flexible tool aimed at facilitating long term dialogue between tenants, the landlord, contractors, operatives and others.
It asks many questions based on what tenants told us led to them feeling stigmatised. Under tickets that address culture; tenants leading change; service delivery and repairs; first class staff; stigma and governance; and celebrating social housing, it invites actions that can be threaded into a landlord’s change programmes. The aim is that these can lead to the development of trust and mutuality where landlords make changes, tenants understand the challenges faced and everyone takes ownership of the solutions.
This may not be rocket science, but calling it a journey planner recognises that there is some distance to travel, and that it’s going to take time to build trust. There are many questions that need asking – we hope that the Journey Planner contains many of them. Ultimately though, this is about who we are, what are we here for, and the questions need to be asked.
Further resources
[1] Regulator of Social Housing – year two Tenant Satisfaction Measures – available here
[2] Please publicise our survey to tenants so that the sample size can grow! The survey is available here.
Open the Tackling Stigma Journey Planner and find out more about the Stop Social Housing Stigma
Email: info@stopsocialhousingstigma.org
To discuss any issues rasied in this article, please feel free to contact james.tickell@campbelltickell.com.
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