A new report from the government’s Office for Equality and Opportunity provides an overview of the main evidence and messages around the lived experience of disabled people in the UK in relation to housing. The evidence comes from a systematic review of evidence on the lived experience of disabled people in the UK. It was conducted by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds in collaboration with Disability Rights UK between 2010 and 2021. This report presents a summary of that literature on the topic of housing. For each theme, it summarises the evidence and outlines the findings for policy makers and other people involved in providing appropriate housing for disabled people.
The focus of this report is primarily to identify the experiences of disabled people which are documented in the literature. It is not to identify and document administrative or statistical data. This review focuses on lived experience research. This gives us a better, but far from complete, understanding of the issues faced by disabled people and people with health conditions in relation to their experience of housing. Evidence or opinions expressed reflect the evidence and opinions reported in the underlying source reports, not the views of the authors of this summary report.
You can read the full report here – below are the main conclusions taken from the end of the report:
Conclusions
There are clear points of view that are presented consistently by disabled people throughout the literature.
Being able to have a suitable home which meets the needs of disabled people is seen as having the potential to greatly improve their wellbeing, independence, and feelings of safety and security. It is also their right under national and international legislation on human rights.
Many disabled people find that the professionals who are supposed to assist them in finding homes which meet their needs do not actually prioritise their wishes and needs.
This tension between disabled people’s needs and professional views can be based on a failure to explore in detail what those needs are. Disabled people can have very different types of needs depending on the nature of their impairment. Professionals (and legislators) need to be prepared to explore needs which can be surprising, and can be totally missed by some of the medicalised lists or cost-benefit considerations in the current guidance issued to professionals.
Emotional and social needs are particularly unmet for disabled people, particularly those emotional and social needs of a suitable home, as described by disabled people themselves. These emotional and social aspects can be as important as the physical aspects of aids and adaptations to the buildings.
Co-production of homes which are suitable for disabled people can in some cases require approaching discussions, options, and choices in ways which take full account of the communication needs that some disabled people with mental health, learning difficulty, or autism related needs may have.
Some disabled people can also experience other disadvantages including poverty, discrimination, and difficulty engaging with services which make their housing situation worse, particularly those with mental health conditions, learning difficulties, or autism. This can affect how housing providers and local authorities make arrangements to find suitable housing for them.
There is also a lack of representation of disabled people in many of the bodies responsible for planning the services which are in place to ensure that disabled people can access the homes they need.
There is specific legislation and financial provision in England to provide suitable housing to meet the needs of disabled people, and link them to available offers of housing. But failures to listen to what disabled people actually need can both lead to a failure to fulfil these obligations, and waste public funds on inappropriate adaptations or aids.
Despite the points above, there is considerable evidence of good practice and extensive literature on informed design principles about how to provide suitable housing, and awareness of the need to co-produce better homes. Several examples of this good practice have been discussed in this review.