housing. When will there be safe and suitable accommodation for people with disabilities?

sben

Brighton and Hove City Council.

When will there be safe and suitable accommodation for people with disabilities?
There is nothing out there at the moment, and people with disabilities are stuggling, including myself.

janer1967

Hi there 

I don't think anyone here would be able to answer that 

I'm sorry you can't find anything suitable it took me over 12 months to get suitable accommodation when I became wheelchair bound and u think that's quite quick compared to others 

Have you reported this to your local mp 

poppy123456

It's not just Brighton and Hove that has this issue, it's a problem that expands all over the country. Waiting lists are huge for any social housing property and if it's a bungalow you're waiting for then you could be in for an extremely long wait.

sben

I am not looking for a bungalow, and local mp's in Brighton and Hove don't care.

Spoonbill

Hi @sben. While I'm not on top of where different interests groups are at in this particular battle, in case of interest, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission reported on housing issues for disabled people in 2018, which might give some background on history and challenges faced in trying to improve things, if not individual solutions.

Connected with housing issues specific to disabled people, there are of course many structural barriers in the current system which generate resistance to secure and suitable accommodation for anyone not lucky enough to have access to sufficient wealth to make life individually better (sorry, long sentence!), and so there are several organisations campaigning for organised change on various fronts.

I believe that Brighton is a pretty active city - one group there you might be interested in, for example, is Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition (no personal connection, just came across them). It may be that you're up against it already or are running out of hope, but if you have any capacity for group work, you might consider reaching out to such a group?

You might be able to get some degree of mutual support while also - with the benefit of your personal experience - advocating for the disabled POV in their campaigns (in whatever way is most appropriate for you). Hope you don't mind the suggestion - all the best!

newborn

The entire housing stock is badly designed for climate and for the needs of ALL potential future users. L.A.s and the NHS waste money and lives are spoiled, in efforts to pick up the pieces because of the shortcomings.  L.As themselves attempted to get a change to Building Regulations.

Essentially, they proposed : Shall we change Building Regs. to oblige new residential building  to be fully inclusive and usable by every future resident on an equal basis, regardless of physical ability? 
 
Anticipating that the industry would fight any such equality and quality measure, they offered three options:   Should such rules apply to a) ALL new build homes? b) SOME new build homes? or c) NOT A SINGLE new build home?

By law, each government or local government proposal must be examined by an Equalities Impact Assessment, to ensure that NO 'protected' group is adversely affected. 

The Impact Assessment in this case declared that there was absolutely NO Equalities Impact whatsoever, in fact that every one of the options was 'beneficial' to all protected groups:  In other words, the proposal was put to the decision makers, carrying the assurance that the protected group concerned, the physically disabled people, are 'positively advantaged' by having NOWHERE TO LIVE  (!*) 

*The impact assessment is on the Government website. H.M.Gov.Closed Consultation. Dept for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, published on 8th September 2020.
It is not designed to be easy reading,  ['public consultation is blatently intended to be nothing of the sort, merely a lobbying opportunity for those with vested interests]   but anyone can easily scan to the Equalities Impact Assessment, which is fairly brief, and there, anyone can plainly see it states every option is 'equally beneficial' to all 'protected' groups. 
In other words a), (having ALL new housing suited to all protected groups including disabled people)
or b)  (having even SOME new housing they can live in) or c) (continuing to build NO housing suited for all users) are all declared to be equally good for disabled people.

Spoonbill

Thanks @newborn, yes new building policy is one aspect and wasn't familiar with that consultation, (which must be this). I'm reading it slightly differently in that the options seem to offer different standards of accessibility, applied across all new housing, rather than considering the proportion of housing to which accessibility standards apply.

If this is the case, it doesn't seem a total whitewash to suggest that most options are beneficial to some degree, although suggesting that a default case of "do-nothing" would be "beneficial" does seem to...stretch the limits of honesty!

What seems to me more telling of priorities is that over a year after the consultation ended, the promised Govt response to the submissions is still MIA. DNS included it in a recent summary of public policy failure. And this, of course, is why pressure groups are necessary!

Spoonbill

Just to add to the above, the EHRC have given the Equality Impact Assessment a similar slating, reading: "Given the current chronic lack of availability of accessible housing, it is difficult to understand how option 1, which proposes no change to the current system, would not have a negative impact." It's here under May 2021 if you're interested.

sben

From what I have experienced for the past 20 years, social housing does not care, they have told me several times that they are not concerned and not bothered about health and disability.
Also, MP's and the government does not care, as they have told me via letters.

Spoonbill

Late response (sorry) but basically agree. To cut a long story short, social housing has broadly changed character from providing a step toward social mobility into a decrepit safety net that - unless you conform to very precise rules and are willing to jump when the owners & gatekeepers say so - you will fall through. A housing association may be stuffed full of well-meaning people, but all hamstrung by bureaucratic (and often politically motivated) short-term funding models.

I think it's pretty clear now exactly where government priorities lie, so enough said there.

However, I do urge you to get in touch with voluntary groups which are less bound to dictats of the rich (such as the one I mentioned), who can support you through advocacy. You're not wrong to feel bruised and broken by the system, but would argue you have little to lose by trying even if you feel it a lost cause, so I hope that you can find the power you need to take that step.