Living a Life in Social Housing: a Report from the Real London Lives Project
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Report to g15 Living a life in social housing: a report from the Real London Lives project Julie Rugg and Leonie Kellaher November 2014 Living a life in social housing Disclaimer Views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the University of York, the Responsibility for any errors lies with the authors Copyright Copyright © University of York, 2014 All rights reserved. Reproduction of this report by photocopying or electronic means for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Otherwise, no part of this report may be reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York. The Real London Lives research programme has been commissioned by g15. g15 represents London’s largest housing associations, providing homes for 1 in 10 Londoners and building a quarter of the capital’s new homes. We are working to solve the housing crisis by delivering good quality, affordable homes of all types. A core part of our role also involves initiating and delivering wide-ranging social and economic development activities in the communities where we work. The 15 comprises A2 Dominion Group, Affinity Sutton, Amicus Horizon, Catalyst Housing, Circle Group, East Thames Group, Family Mosaic, Genesis Housing Association, The Hyde Group, L&Q, Metropolitan, Network Housing Group, Notting Hill Housing, Peabody, Southern Housing Group. ISBN: 978-0-9929500-3-3 ii |Living a Life in Social Housing Living a life in social housing iii |Living a Life in Social Housing Living a life in social housing Contents Disclaimer _____________________________________________________________________________ ii Copyright ______________________________________________________________________________ ii Contents _______________________________________________________________________________ iv Executive summary______________________________________________________________________ vi Chapter One: Introduction ________________________________________________________________1 Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________1 The London housing market _________________________________________________________________2 The g15__________________________________________________________________________________3 The research______________________________________________________________________________3 The qualitative respondents _________________________________________________________________4 The ‘pathways’ approach ___________________________________________________________________7 Structure of the report _____________________________________________________________________10 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________11 Chapter two: Becoming a social housing tenant_____________________________________________13 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________13 Tenancy experience _______________________________________________________________________13 Common pathways _______________________________________________________________________14 Lone parenthood _________________________________________________________________________17 Adult migrants ___________________________________________________________________________18 Alternative access routes___________________________________________________________________19 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________21 Chapter three: Household change over time ________________________________________________23 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________23 Young families ___________________________________________________________________________23 Mature families __________________________________________________________________________24 Grandparents as care givers ________________________________________________________________25 Grandparents as care receivers______________________________________________________________26 Families without children___________________________________________________________________26 Isolated individuals _______________________________________________________________________27 Household fluidity ________________________________________________________________________27 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________28 iv |Living a Life in Social Housing Living a life in social housing Chapter four: Financial trajectories________________________________________________________29 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________29 Work and unemployment __________________________________________________________________29 Comfortable plateau ______________________________________________________________________31 Moving up ______________________________________________________________________________32 Holding steady ___________________________________________________________________________33 Halted decline ___________________________________________________________________________34 Spiralling downwards______________________________________________________________________36 Sub-subsistence __________________________________________________________________________37 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________38 Chapter five: Overcrowding ______________________________________________________________41 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________41 The Social Sector Size Criteria _______________________________________________________________41 Overcrowded households __________________________________________________________________42 Impact of overcrowding____________________________________________________________________43 Decisions in response to overcrowding ________________________________________________________44 Conclusions______________________________________________________________________________46 Chapter six: Under-occupation____________________________________________________________47 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________47 Under-occupation: the characteristics ________________________________________________________47 Moving house: a response to under-occupation?________________________________________________48 Under-occupation: the impact of the housing benefit changes _____________________________________49 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________51 Chapter seven: Conclusion _______________________________________________________________53 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________53 Themes _________________________________________________________________________________53 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________55 Appendix: Tenant biographies____________________________________________________________57 v |Living a Life in Social Housing Living a life in social housing Executive summary Chapter one: Introduction The Real London Lives project aims to achieve a better understanding of the lives of Londoners living in social housing, assessing their financial resilience given a range of changes across labour and housing markets and in the context of Welfare Reform. A telephone survey has taken place of 1,648 working-age tenants of the g15 group of housing associations; results from that survey have been reported separately. From this, a sample of 54 tenants has been selected for qualitative face-to-face interview, which took place over the winter of 2013/14.The research is longitudinal, and will be returning to those tenants a year after the first interview. This first report from the qualitative interviews is an introduction to the households, and uses a ‘pathways’ approach. This approach defines the dynamics of household change, focussing on how tenants came to be in their current housing and financial circumstances, and their likely future trajectories. Two further planned reports will review in more detail the issues of work and financial resilience. Chapter two: Becoming a social housing tenant The route to a social housing tenancy in London is neither straightforward nor easy. The majority of respondents had simply waited for a very long time for a tenancy to become available. Some had spent much of their adult lives waiting. Almost all spent time waiting in the private rented sector. Some couples started their families whilst living in shared property. The simple fact of being overcrowded was not an automatic passport to being offered a tenancy. Other households arrived at social housing following some sort of emergency which in some cases included actual rooflessness. In these cases the extended wait for a permanent property tended to take place in hostels or temporary accommodation. The respondent experiences indicate that neither lone parents nor adult migrants had any particular advantage in the process of securing a social housing tenancy. The majority of lone parents in the sample had accessed their tenancy as a couple, and became a lone parent by dint of relationship breakdown or through the death of their partner. Adult migrants had lived either with relatives or in the private rented sector, again usually for an