Mr Francis

QUESTION: WHAT SPECIFIC PROBLEMS DO HOMELESS PEOPLE FROM ETHNIC MINORITY BACKGROUNDS FACE?

INTRODUCTION

This essay seeks to specify problems that homeless people from ethnic minority backgrounds face. To enumerate and analyse these specific problems, there needs to be an understanding of what homelessness means as well as highlight the nature of challenges facing people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Pickvance (2007) defined homelessness as a condition where people are squatting, and those living in hostels for the homeless run by charities or by local councils. Also people living in insecure private housing at risk of eviction, and those who are concealed because they are living as parts of other households. This definition raises various possible social conditions that causes homelessness like unemployment, disability, poverty and the changing nature of the housing market. The above definition of homelessness is similar to the definition of homelessness by the Housing Act (1996) as a situation where a person has no accommodation available for occupancy, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, by legal standards or has accommodation available but cannot secure entry to it constituted by various legal reasons.

Another definition of homelessness which combines the legal framework and reality of homelessness is achieved by Small and Hinton (1997) as people who don't have a permanent or secure accommodation of their own which particularly includes people sleeping rough, living in temporary arranged accommodation like a bed and breakfast, hotels or hostels and also includes people who involuntarily depend on friends and relatives, and finally people who are living in a private rented accommodation which is in a bad state. Baldock et al (2007) in 'Social Policy' define homelessness as ‘rooflessness’ or rather those squatting, and those accommodated by charities or local councils in hostels and also those that live in private housing but face an eviction and a large number that are accounted for because they live as parts of other households.

Homelessness then is a general occurring social issue in the United Kingdom and as at 2010, they were 51,310 homeless households living in temporary accommodation in England (Lund, 2011). In its report 'Hidden Homelessness: Britain’s Invisible City', Crisis (2004) emphasises, there are far more Hidden Homeless people than is officially recognised and the problem has only been partially understood and only partly tackled. These people are 'hidden homeless' since they only manage to stay off the streets by staying in various forms of temporary accommodation. The charity estimates some 75,000 people stay in bed & breakfast lodgings, 10,000 are squatters, 220,000 share overcrowded accommodation with friends or family, with 70,000 being in a household only under toleration Crisis (2004). Recent statistics by the Department for Communities and Local Governments (2012) state in England, there were 52,960 households in temporary accommodation as at the end of September 2012 and there were 29,130 decisions on applications (by eligible households) for housing assistance under the homelessness legislation of the Housing Act 1996.

MAIN BODY

Ethnicity according to Lund (2011) can be seen as the characteristics that connect a particular group of people or groups of people to each other. Ethnicity is one of the key factors that determine the variation of social conditions of people in their socialisations and interactions as Frazer (1995) implied. In the UK, ethnic minority does not refer to nationality but to ethnic backgrounds built slightly upon physical racial features. Gervais and Rehman (2005) stated that it was 3 times more likely for a person from an ethnic minority background to be statutory homeless than the white majority. They go on to state that while ethnic minority households accounted for about 7% of the general population in the UK in 2001, they represented 21% of the households accepted as homeless by local authorities in 2004-05. This trend simply outlines the fact that ethnic minority individuals are more likely to be homeless and there are various causes which will be explicitly explored in the main body. Also key to this essay is highlighting specific problems that homeless people from ethnic minority background face. There will two main dimensions to this questions as the essay will look at the challenges ethnic minority people face that leads to homelessness and the challenges they face when they are homeless.

Gervais and Rehman (2005) highlighted the various causes of homelessness in ethnic minority communities. The causes of homelessness in the South-Asian communities include domestic violence, mental health problems, evacuation from private landlords and evacuation from relatives or friends and causes of homelessness in the Black Caribbean community include pregnancy causing family breakdown, multiple and complex problems, being told to leave by landlords, domestic violence and financial difficulties. In the Black African communities, causes of homelessness include pregnancy, family disputes, relationship breakdowns, being told to leave by private landlords and overcrowding, and the causes of homelessness in the Irish community are domestic violence, financial difficulties, rent arrears and landlords forcing tenants to leave, return from abroad and repeat homelessness.

The above mentioned causes of homelessness point to the complexities found within these ethnic minority communities as the roots of these problems are found in socio-economic explanations. It would be simplistic to say poverty is the cause of homelessness as there people that have minimal level of education and have not worked all their life but have never been homeless however, Reisenberger et al (2010) noted that 60% of people that are homeless have qualifications below Level 2 and 37% have no qualifications (compared to 32% and 15% respectively in the general population). The longer people were homeless and the older they were, the less likely they were to participate in education or training. This is one of the root cause of homelessness as having a house in contemporary Britain is tied down to an individual's financial capabilities.

Baldock et al (2007) indicated that the incomes of some ethnic minority groups are well below the national average and a significant percentage of their population live in areas high in indicators of deprivation. Howard et al (2001) stated that 60% of individuals of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin are in the bottom fifth of income distribution – three times more than white people and almost twice as many as black people. Economic empowerment is important in the procurement of a house or the ability to maintain a home. Lund (2011) summarising the Office for National Statistics and Equality and Human Rights Commission 2010 reports, states that 80% of the UK housing stock was distributed by market forces, that is, according to to the ability to pay. Kane and Kirby (2003) observed that the UK is a far more unequal society than it was 20 or so years ago, and that it is divided into a handful of economic giants amid a sea of poverty-stricken dwarves even though the welfare state tempered the growing income inequalities. Economic inequalities as well as social inequalities set the tone for most of the inequalities that people face especially in the housing market, health care and the education of their children. Acker (2006) believes that ‘most of the social and economic inequalities in developed countries are created in organisations in the daily activities of working and organising work’. Bharj and Salway (2008) noted that access to information may play a part in the inequalities experienced by ethnic minority women. All of the points above indeed indicate that people from ethnic minorities have to contend with financial and economic issues and when they can't meet up, they are led into the path of homelessness.

Two causes of homelessness mentioned above in the South-Asian, Black Caribbean and Black African communities are domestic violence and family breakdown and these occurrences have led to the rise of lone parents (Lund, 2011). Feijten and Van Ham (2010) in the research demonstrated the adverse impacts of divorce and separation on 'housing careers' are long-lasting. The Office for National Statistics (2002) reported that lone parents represented 8% of the population in 1971 but represented 22% of the population in 2001. Lone-parent families generally are poorer, which in itself has a strong association with poor educational outcomes (Ely et al., 2000). Losing a home because of domestic violence is a major pathway is a further reason why lone parents are more likely to be found in the social housing sector (Lund, 2011).

The labour market changes is a precursor to some people becoming homeless. In the 1980's, the loss of manufacturing and the growth of part-time working led to rising levels of poverty and the increasing quantity of less stable forms of household structure (Lowe, 2004). In the current economic downturn of the last 5 years, there is no suggestion that ethnic minorities have suffered more from the changes to the labour market. So the soaring cost of housing in recent years is a generic challenge for all the inhabitants of the UK but when the economic inequalities are factored, there is the potential for rendering people homeless especially people from ethnic minority backgrounds. As the UK house price bubble in the 1980s demonstrated, a speedy rise in interest rates can quickly transform into mortgage defaults and compulsory repossessions, forcing people out of their homes. In 2002, MORI Social Research Institute found that more than one in five people struggled to pay their rent or mortgage because of financial insecurity and the high cost of housing in many areas (Tyler, 2004). Crisis (2004) reckons that the cost of this 'hidden homelessness' is £1.4 billion every year. A significant proportion of this is due to the lost or decreased incomes and taxes of the homeless, but almost half represents the cost to the public purse of providing housing benefit and accommodation payments.

When people become homeless especially households, there is an obligation by the local authorities to get a temporary accommodation for them as the Homelessness Act 2002 imposed a duty on local authorities to develop a homelessness strategy abolishing the 2 years limit on the provision of temporary housing and disallowed an offer of an assured short-hold tenancy (Lund, 2011). This was done with a Priority Need Order which was designed to protect homeless 16 and 17 year olds as well as care leavers and a host of vulnerable groups. The legislations at this time was targeting a far more inclusion radius with the hope of achieving the aims of a modern housing policy but did not include people from ethnic minority background. The actualisation of the Race Relations Act 1968 which outlawed discrimination with regards to housing and employment cannot be a reality without a priority action plan for equality in the housing sector.

A Department for Communities and Local Governments (DCL, 2010) survey found that 6% of Indian people, 8% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi people, 14% of Black African and 15% of Black Caribbean people expected to be treated worse than other races by a council housing department or housing association compared to 25% of white people. This can be a case of subjective, institutional or structural racism as it means people from an ethnic minority background can be discriminated against even when they are genuinely looking for accommodation. Malpass (2005) noted that the policies of housing in the UK has shifted from providing good quality subsidised council houses for the better off working class and tackling the worst private housing conditions to moving the better off working class into the owner occupied sector, and getting the least well off into social renting. Lund (2011) stated that the above strategy has favoured more white households as policies have been driven in white dominated communities. This was a result of subjective racism although it had no bearing to specific ethnic minority group.

When an individual who is from an ethnic minority background becomes homeless, there are some emotional reactions that are exhibited. Communities Scotland (2004) detailed some of this emotional response as fright for many service users interviewed, feelings of isolation from family, friends and community, fear and depression. Communities Scotland (2004) believes that some of these feelings were exacerbated by language barrier and a lack of knowledge of where to go for help. Consideration for immigrants have to be considered in the pool of ethnic minority communities. Immigrants that are not fully settled in the U.K are not entitled to assistance from the local authorities and there have cases of homelessness amongst people in this community. Communities Scotland (2004) believe that in terms of amenities available to immigrants, housing was the most significant and the main issue with housing is inequalities. Immigration definitely increased the demand for public sector housing so allocation of housing became political. To counter any form of discrimination and inequalities, according to Law (1996), a lot of attention was given to the provision of public sector housing to eradicate inequalities with little concern for the influence of racism.

CONCLUSION

Gervais and Rehman (2005) noted that some local authorities see homelessness as a housing problem and focus nearly all their resources on the 'main' duties of accommodation at the expense of advice and information. Tackling homeless ins seen as a reactive activity but there needs to be innovative responses to the current socio-economic issues that prevail against the equality of the housing sector. Since the introduction of the Homelessness Act (2002), central Government has increasingly encouraged local authorities to take a more proactive approach to tackling homelessness. One of local authorities’ specific responsibilities is to develop a strategy to assess and prevent homelessness in the local area. There is a duty on each local authority to produce a homelessness strategy and to review and update it at least every five years. Strategies must also aim to prevent homelessness and ensure that accommodation and support will be available for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The relationship between housing outcomes and ethnicity shows a great amount of variation amongst different ethnic groups. This shows that the development of a more complex and holistic account of racial inequalities in the housing market must also address a range of other factors (Law et al., 1999). In a report by Chahal (1999) for the NHS, there is a suggestion for the role of minority ethnic and mainstream housing associations in providing services to homeless people needs to be explored. This is particularly relevant to co-ordinating and recognising health and housing initiatives that will provide a level of equality in the housing sector.

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