Shelter seeks to end bad housing for next generation

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Homeless awareness charity Shelter has launched a campaign to help children affected by poor housing.

The million children campaign aims to end bad housing for the next generation under the slogan ‘Not all evictees get to meet Davina,’ highlighting the fact that real life eviction is not entertaining.

Homelessness and poor housing is an issue which can affect everyone regardless of sexual orientation, the organisation estimates that 135,000 households in England were threatened with eviction last year.

A recent Shelter and Stonewall Housing project found incidents of young people being thrown out of home because of their sexuality where they often suffer physical and verbal harassment.

The research, titled Sexual Exclusion: issues and best practice in lesbian, gay and bisexual housing and homelessness, also uncovered issues of same sex domestic violence.

The March 2005 report recognised that a significant proportion of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people suffering housing problems fall through the net because housing providers are not trained to consider sexuality when assessing clients’ needs.

It recommends specifying the needs of LGB groups in written policies, including tenant’s handbooks, succession policies, allocations and transfer policies as well as research into LGB housing experiences and specific solutions to problems identified.

The guidance focuses on harassment and homophobic violence, and same-sex domestic violence. It includes suggestions on how to combat these problems, with details about why monitoring is important.

The study encouraged training for frontline staff to give them a better understanding of the complexity of LGB housing issues and to create a more inclusive atmosphere for LGB people, for example researching local support groups and ensuring staff have contact information for these, making available racks of leaflets for LGB support groups, or considering organising an LGB housing forum for tenants.

Shelter want to eliminate these issue for people of all sexual orientations and the group hope by encouraging people to sign up to the million children campaign that they are joining more than 80,000 other people who are fighting to end bad housing for the next generation.

You can sign up to the campaign by clicking here

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