Housing needs of minority ethnic groups: evidence review

4. Selected case studies

The following case studies outline two projects which provide housing related support to minority ethnic groups. These case studies have been selected for the pro-active ways in which both organisations have sought to engage with minority ethnic groups to increase awareness of their housing rights and facilitate access to the services they need. Both case studies provide insight into how minority ethnic groups can be empowered to engage with housing services, express their needs and preferences and improve their housing outcomes. 

The Older People's Project - Partnership between Trust, Hanover (Scotland) and Bield housing associations^{[34] [35]}

The Older People's project has been funded for 14 years by the Lottery Fund. Trust, Hanover (Scotland) and Bield housing associations identified a need to help minority ethnic older people who faced language barriers and were not aware of their entitlements to support (Joshi 2020). Up until February 2020 the project had helped more than one thousand older minority ethnic people in Scotland. It has provided information, access to benefits and services, and sought to de-stigmatise topics which were commonly not discussed openly in these communities (Joshi 2020). The project carried out work with minority ethnic older people across Scotland by:

• individual consultations to identify needs and concerns
• increasing awareness of services and facilitating access
• creating an ethnic minority older people forum to give people a direct voice
• identifying strengths and providing support into leadership roles
• helping overcome barriers via multi-lingual, culturally-appropriate information and access to services
• reducing social isolation, loneliness and increasing financial independence
• working with partners to achieve more inclusive service design and delivery

The project published a research report in March 2020, which found that older minority ethnic people valued their independence and wanted to remain in their own homes, preferably with easy access to local amenities. Where participants experienced mobility issues, their immediate priority was to access support from social services for home adaptations. The majority of those interviewed had not given much thought to their future needs and there was a general perception that social services would look after them until their deaths. Few considered sheltered housing due to a lack of understanding of how supported accommodation is funded and a concern that their social and cultural needs would not be met (Joshi 2020).

Housing Champions Project, Northern Ireland^[36]

In 2017, Housing Rights UK sought to enhance the housing advice service provided to BME communities in Northern Ireland through a peer project, supported by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The Housing Champions project's long-term goals were to equip BME communities with the information they needed to make informed and appropriate housing decisions, and know how to access better quality housing.

By January 2018, 14 BME peer volunteers had been recruited from various language backgrounds including Romanian, Arabic, Kurdish, Polish, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Hungarian. Peer volunteers received accredited training in housing advice and interpretation to become 'Housing Champions', with the aim of strengthening the peers' employability, confidence and positivity about their future.

The second stage of the process was 16 weeks of work placement in a housing advice setting to allow them to apply their housing advice training to a work environment. Once this was completed, the final stage of the project was for the peers to deliver housing advice to members of their own community through outreach sessions. The purpose of these sessions was to: 

• improve accessibility for BME clients
• help remove any barriers to mainstream advice services
• empower BME communities to seek their housing rights and responsibilities by attending a session
• BME clients will know where to seek housing advice in the future (Housing Rights UK 2018)