Black and minority ethnic communities experience of overcrowding

Published by traceybignall for Race Equality Foundation in Housing and also in Health

Overcrowding is a growing problem.  The effects on families are detrimental impacting on both physical and mental health, as well as children’s education and family relationships.  The National Housing Federation has raised concern over this issue stating that the numbers of people living in overcrowded conditions is expected to rise to 2.6million by 2011.  Whilst the situation varies between region and housing tenure type, evidence consistently shows that black and minority ethnic families are more likely to live in overcrowded conditions than their white counterparts.

The Race Equality Foundation is a national organisation that promotes race equality, by exploring what is known about discrimination and disadvantage and developing interventions to overcome barriers and promote equality.

The latest Race Equality Foundation’s Better Housing briefing on ‘Black and minority ethnic communities experience of overcrowding’ will be launched on stand C7 at the National Housing Federation conference, 22- 24 September in Birmingham. 

 Key issues raised in the paper include:

• Families from black and minority ethnic groups are twice as likely as white British families to be severely overcrowded;
• A lack of larger sized accommodation affects those communities who have large families, in particular, Bangladeshi and Black Africans;
• There is a suggestion that hidden homelessness amongst certain black and minority ethnic groups may contribute to the increase in overcrowding.

The paper highlights some good practice examples of how housing providers have tried to alleviate overcrowding, particularly in areas with high numbers of black and minority ethnic families in social housing.

To receive a copy of the paper, do visit the Race Equality Foundation at stand C7 at the NHF conference.

The paper is part of a range of evidence based briefings which give the latest research, resources and good practice examples to help housing practitioners embed race equality in their work.  The Foundation’s housing programme also includes a web based practice site www.better-housing.org.uk which has a growing list of resources, interactive briefing papers, a discussion forum and web links.