Large Print: 1st Report - Black people’s experiences of homelessness

Key findings

• Black people are almost four times more likely to experience statutory homelessness than White people and represent the highest risk group in most English regions; 21.9% of temporary accommodation residents are Black despite Black people comprising only 3.9% of the general population.
• Black households are six times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions and over three times more likely to contain sofa surfers; those in temporary accommodation are twice as likely as White households to remain there over five years (18% vs 8%).
• Right to Buy scheme has exacerbated racial disparities by failing to replace sold homes; Black homeownership rates (14–22%) lag far behind White British rates (70%), increasing reliance on insecure private renting.
• One-third of Black people with homelessness experience anticipate discrimination from landlords; 14% report experiencing housing discrimination; the Right to Rent scheme has enabled landlords to unlawfully discriminate against British nationals with ethnic minority backgrounds.
• Local Housing Allowance frozen in eight of last 13 years, creating £1,500 average losses for claimants and disproportionately harming Black, Asian, and minority ethnic households; government's National Plan to End Homelessness lacks race-specific measures and recognition of racial inequality.

Recommendations

• The government should amend the National Plan to End Homelessness to explicitly acknowledge and tackle excess homelessness risks faced by Black people and embed understanding, transparency, and accountability on race at national, regional, and local levels.
• Statutory services should be required to play a stronger role in tackling homelessness; the proposed 'duty to collaborate' should set out clear ambition to tackle poorer outcomes for racially minoritised groups exiting public services.
• The government must collect and publish data on social housing applications, outcomes, temporary accommodation use and duration, and statutory homelessness exits disaggregated by both race/ethnicity and gender.
• Local Housing Allowance rates should be increased and sustained at the 30th percentile of local private rents to prevent homelessness, unlock homes for families in temporary accommodation, and particularly benefit disproportionately affected Black-led households.
• The government should develop a national performance management framework for homelessness assessments monitoring outcomes by race and gender, with annual summaries and reporting of racial biases to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• Government staff should receive training to work with vulnerable households in a racially informed way; the new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman should support individuals subject to racial discrimination and escalate cases to the EHRC where appropriate.
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission budget should receive and sustain a 10% uplift to enable pursuit of key areas including supporting people to secure justice in discrimination cases.
• Domestic abuse funding should be urgently reviewed to adequately support victims; funding to tackle rough sleeping should allocate resources to frontline organisations working with Black homeless people.
• Government rough sleeping strategies should include women who manage homelessness by remaining less visible and who may face higher personal safety risks than those sleeping rough openly.

Key actors

Women and Equalities Committee, Sarah Owen (Chair), Heriot-Watt University (I-SPHERE study), Shelter, Crisis, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Greater Manchester Law Centre, Race on the Agenda