THE LARGEST STUDY INTO LGBT SOCIAL HOUSING HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED. MICKEY CARROLL EXPLORES THE STORIES BEHIND THE FINDINGS

SOCIAL HOUSING

“Whenever I walked down the road, they would open the windows and scream at me. Graffiti was appearing on my garden wall. If there was a skip in the road, the kids would take stuff out and throw it at my windows. They’d throw eggs, they’d throw excrement. They’d expose themselves to me when I left the house.”

Josie feared for her life, after facing a transphobic campaign of abuse by some new neighbours. The house that she’d rented for 15 years was suddenly unsafe and she didn’t know what to do about it.

“I reported everything, especially the criminal stuff. After I started reporting it, the council got involved. They asked me why I wasn’t bidding on council houses, so I could move away. I told them I had no idea how to.” Once Newham council, London, heard what was happening to Josie, they moved quickly. She was put at the top of the priority list and got the first house she bid on.

Sadly, the story isn’t the same for many other LGBT tenants. The largest study of LGBT social housing has just been released by Surrey University, in partnership with HouseProud. According to the research, one quarter of LGBT tenants say they would feel uncomfortable letting their landlords into their homes. Over half of all residents didn’t feel that the housing provider’s staff were always responsive to their concerns or sensitive to the needs of LGBTQ people – leaving them feeling unvalued as residents. These figures tell a growing story of distrust between LGBT tenants and their landlords.