Four simple ways landlords and letting agents can make life better for tenants

First paragraph: Everyone knows how important it is to have a home. It’s no surprise that being homeless is bad for a person’s health: it can even kill. And it’s just as obvious that housing which is damp, cold, overcrowded or riddled with toxins is a recipe for poor health. Yet the place you call home can also affect your health and well-being in subtler, but similarly important, ways.https://theconversation.com/four-simple-ways-landlords-and-letting-agents-can-make-life-better-for-tenants-11531

GCPH Briefing Paper 52: Housing through Social Enterprise

A scoping study explored the potential role of social enterprises in protecting and enhancing the health of low-income and otherwise vulnerable households in Glasgow. We consider how different kinds of social enterprises operating in the housing sector might work to improve access to affordable, stable and good quality homes for those in need. We begin by outlining the level of housing need in Glasgow, the barriers to quality housing for low-income households and the impact of housing and health, before describing a number of ways in which social enterprises have the potential to improve public health. We finish by outlining the next steps in this programme of research

Housing through Social Enterprise: Report of Phase 1 – Research Scoping Exercise

The Housing through Social Enterprise project aims to explore the health impacts of social enterprises working in the housing/homelessness sector. The project has two phases - Phase I aims to clarify the key issues through a desk-based evidence review and scoping work with partner organisations, and Phase II examines the impacts of social enterprises through direct research with tenants. This report sets out the findings from Phase I, providing the background to the project in terms of the existing research evidence and the policy context, and summarising the scoping work that has been undertaken with partner organisations to design the research

Housing as a social determinant of health: Evidence from the Housing through Social Enterprise study

Housing is a key driver of public health. Existing evidence clearly demonstrates the ways in which health is damaged by homelessness and by living in poor quality housing. However, the routes from housing to health and wellbeing are wider and more complex than the negative effects of problems with housing. Housing as ‘home’ is not just a physical shelter, but also a foundation for social, psychological and cultural wellbeing. Hence, it is important to understand how houses become homes for the people that live in them and the ways in which housing organisations can affect this process. This report summarises findings from the Housing through Social Enterprise study. The project followed a group of new tenants from three different housing organisations to examine the health and wellbeing impacts of different approaches to housing provision across the social and private rented sectors. We interviewed more than 70 tenants at three points over the first year of their tenancy, to explore how they felt about their housing situation and their local neighbourhood, and to measure changes in their health and wellbeing. The key findings of this research are: • Tenants’ health and wellbeing generally improved over the first year of their tenancy, across all three housing organisations. • A strong relationship with a named member of staff, who respected them and understood their particular needs, history and situation, was important to tenants. • A good quality property was one that was efficient and free from obvious physical defects, but also well decorated, comfortable and homely. Condition on move-in day was especially important. • Tenants varied in terms of how much they wanted to improve or customise a property to their own tastes and whether they had the capacity, permission or resources to do so. • Financial challenges were particularly acute at the start of a new tenancy. Some tenants struggled to recover from this because of ongoing high or unexpected expenses, many of which were related to their properties or tenancies. • Tenants valued a sense of safety, friendliness and amenities, and having social support networks in their local area. • Tenants’ neighbourhood priorities depended on their personal circumstances, characteristics and prior experience. Ultimately, having a choice in where they would live was the most important aspect for tenants. • Many of the mechanisms linking housing to health and wellbeing operate through tenants being able to establish a sense of ‘home’ in their new tenancy. These findings raise a number of issues for debate and discussion among housing and public health professionals, as well as tenants’ organisations

Editorial: language, cognition and gender

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Neighbourhood Impacts on Wellbeing: The Role of Housing among Low-Income Tenants

The existing literature on neighbourhood effects suggests that a number of factors within local areas can have an impact on health, including environmental hazards, social networks and the socio-economic status of the area. However, there is minimal evidence regarding the role of housing organisations in shaping these effects. This article sets out the findings from a three-year longitudinal, mixed methods study of tenants of three housing organisations operating in the social and private rented sectors, examining different aspects of neighbourhood experience and their relationship to health and wellbeing outcomes. The findings demonstrate impacts of the immediate environment in terms of close neighbours, the wider neighbourhood environment, and social support networks, which are heavily influenced by tenant characteristics, previous experience and expectations. The services provided by housing organisations, themselves shaped by regulation and market factors, are also important. The findings will have relevance for tenants, housing providers, public health professionals and policy makers

Housing as a social determinant of health and wellbeing: developing an empirically-informed realist theoretical framework

Background The role of housing as a social determinant of health is well-established, but the causal pathways are poorly understood beyond the direct effects of physical housing defects. For low-income, vulnerable households there are particular challenges in creating a sense of home in a new tenancy which may have substantial effects on health and wellbeing. This study examines the role of these less tangible aspects of the housing experience for tenants in the social and private rented sectors in west central Scotland. Methods The paper analyses quantitative data from a mixed methods, longitudinal study of tenants from three housing organisations, collected across the first year of their tenancy. The paper postulates causal hypotheses on the basis of staff interviews and then uses a Realist Research approach to test and refine these into a theoretical framework for the connections between tenants’ broader experience of housing and their health and wellbeing. Results Housing service provision, tenants’ experience of property quality and aspects of neighbourhood are all demonstrated to be significantly correlated with measures of of health and wellbeing. Analysis of contextual factors provides additional detail within the theoretical framework, offering a basis for further empirical work. Conclusions The findings provide an empirically-informed realist theoretical framework for causal pathways connecting less tangible aspects of the housing experience to health and wellbeing. Applying this within housing policy and practice would facilitate a focus on housing as a public health intervention, with potential for significant impacts on the lives of low-income and vulnerable tenants. The framework also offers a basis for further research to refine our understanding of housing as a social determinant of health

Hybridity in the housing sector: examining impacts on social and private rented sector tenants in Scotland

Housing Associations in many countries exhibit increasing levels of ‘hybridity’, as reductions in state financing for social housing, exacerbated by austerity policies since the 2008 crash, have instigated ‘enterprising’ approaches to maintaining income. Alongside this, hybrid organisations have emerged in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), responding to sectoral growth and consequent increases in vulnerable households entering private renting. These developing hybridities have been considered at a strategic level, but there has been little exploration of the impacts on tenants. This paper examines two organisations, operating across the social and private rented sectors, to elucidate potential implications for tenants. The research suggests that different forms of hybridity can affect tenant outcomes and, moreover, that examining such impacts is important in understanding hybridity itself. Furthermore, the study suggests that emerging forms of hybridity, particularly in the PRS, may be blurring the boundaries between housing sectors, with implications for policy and research

Intervening in the cycle of poverty, poor housing and poor health: the role of housing providers in enhancing tenants' mental wellbeing

Poverty, poor housing and poor health are complexly interconnected in a cycle that has proven resistant to intervention by housing providers or policy makers. Research often focuses on the impacts of the physical housing defects, particularly upon rates of (physical) illness and disease. There has been comparatively little research into the ways in which housing services can underpin the generation of positive health and, especially, wellbeing. Drawing on qualitative data from 75 tenants in the social and private rented sectors, this paper describes the findings of a research project that tracked tenants’ experiences across their first year in a new tenancy in Greater Glasgow, Scotland. The project collected data on tenants’ perceptions of housing and housing service quality, financial coping and health and wellbeing, which was analysed using the principles of Realist Evaluation to elucidate impacts and causal pathways. Being able to establish a sense of home was key to tenants’ wellbeing. The home provided many tenants with a recuperative space in which to shelter from daily stressors and was a source of autonomy and social status. A sense of home was underpinned by aspects of the housing service, property quality and affordability which are potentially amenable to intervention by housing providers. These findings raise questions about the extent to which social housing providers and the private rental market in the UK are able to meet the needs of vulnerable tenants. They suggest that approaches to housing provision that go beyond providing a basic dwelling are needed to successfully intervene in the cycle of poverty, poor housing and poor health

Norms on the gender perception of role nouns in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Slovak

We collected norms on the gender stereotypicality of an extensive list of role nouns in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Slovak, to be used as a basis for the selection of stimulus materials in future studies. We present a Web-based tool (available at https://www.unifr.ch/lcg/ ) that we developed to collect these norms and that we expect to be useful for other researchers, as well. In essence, we provide (a) gender stereotypicality norms across a number of languages and (b) a tool to facilitate cross-language as well as cross-cultural comparisons when researchers are interested in the investigation of the impact of stereotypicality on the processing of role nouns