New research has revealed an under-representation of Black and minority ethnic (BME) people in today’s community-led housing sector, but suggests there are significant opportunities to better realise the benefits for these communities.
Community-led Housing for All: Opportunities and challenges for black and minority ethnic community-led housing is the first report to provide a national overview of the challenges faced by BME communities within the community-led housing sector in England.
The report was co-produced by a research team, which includes Claude Hendrickson MBE, from Leeds Community Homes; Henri Baptiste, from Pathway Housing Solutions; Dr Tom Moore of the University of Liverpool; and Dr Yael Arbell, of Sheffield Hallam University.
According to the research team, a resurgence of community-led housing in recent years has empowered local citizens in the planning, development and ownership of affordable housing and community assets.
However, BME communities have been under-represented in these developments. This is despite the benefits of community-led housing being well suited to address the racial inequalities within housing and planning policy and practice reported by many of the research participants.
Baptiste said: “My organisation has adopted community-led housing as a place-based solution to the problems of housing disadvantage and homelessness, however as a small, black-led grass roots organisation advocating for the needs of underserved communities, we are doubly discriminated against, and struggling to navigate through a ‘one size fits all’ policy environment.
“This research shines a light on the issue of racial inequality not just in community led housing but across the whole housing eco-system including planning, finance, commissioning and policy. It serves as a call-out to the sector, offering practical solutions and a catalyst for solution focussed dialogue.”
The report extols a rich history of BME community-led housing, and offers several longstanding examples of successful schemes dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, many of which navigated significant barriers of institutional and structural discrimination within housing.
Findings of the report include:
- The majority of participants said that the housing needs of BME communities are unmet, ignored and under-prioritised in government housing policy and planning practice
- Community-led housing empowers people to create their own housing solutions. As such, it provides an opportunity to overcome the housing disadvantages faced by black and minority ethnic communities
- While community-led housing leaders have displayed a commitment to enhancing equalities, diversity and inclusion in the sector, awareness of community-led housing remains low among BME communities and more extensive engagement is needed with these communities by the community-led housing sector
- While participants highlighted the importance of representation, many felt that BME communities are under-represented in key roles in the sector, and highlighted experience of exclusion from community-led housing opportunities and decision-making. Some community-led housing models have been perceived as ‘white spaces’, implicitly excluding BME members
- The success of BME community-led projects is threatened by inconsistent funding frameworks and policy processes. Access to funding was a key barrier for projects, and there is a perception that BME communities have been marginalised from allocations made, for example through funding allocations made from public and private sector sources
Missed opportunities
The research calls on funders to record data on how BME communities are represented in community housing fund financing. It also calls for local and combined authorities to actively promote opportunities for black and minority ethnic community-led projects to acquire land and develop inclusive planning and engagement processes.
Hendrickson, a community-led housing advisor from Leeds Community Homes, said: “It’s been 30 years of missed opportunities, but this research highlights many barriers to black and minority ethnic communities within the community-led housing and community land trust sector.
“It lays the foundation to change the barriers into opportunities in the future and help erode some of the disparities that BME communities are still facing. The community-led housing sector must have black and minority ethnic input at all levels to be truly inclusive.”
Jimm Reed, chief executive of Leeds Community Homes, said: “We believe that community-led housing should be an opportunity for all communities. This research is vital in highlighting barriers which have prevented it being a viable option for many black and minority communities; and it will help us, as a sector, engage with these challenges in order to support and enable many more projects to emerge from diverse and minority-led groups.”
Gary Hartin, programme manager for Backing Community-Led Housing at the Nationwide Foundation, said: “We are grateful to the individuals whose voices have fed into this work, which will make a significant contribution to the community-led housing sector.
“As a funder, we will be looking at how our work can drive more inclusive practice in the community-led housing space, as well as our practices. This is vital for empowering black and minority ethnic groups to tackle housing disadvantage, and indeed for increasing the number of decent affordable homes available, which we know community-led housing plays an important role in.”
Image credit: inxti/Shutterstock
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