Issues in the development of social housing for ethnic minorities

Making a housing stock available economically which can accommodate the nee ds of all social groups is a continuing problem for policy-makers and housi ng providers. There are two interrelated aspects to be considered, sociolog ical and spatial. The policies determining criteria for access, financial s upport, and methods of management are frequently debated by local and centr al governments, but separate attention is usually given to the physical cha racteristics of the housing stock which so strongly affects decisions about who can live where and with what level of amenity. This paper(2) seeks to show these aspects coming together in some of the difficult choices which a rose when attempts had been made to meet the needs of minority ethnic group s(3) by building new specialized social rented housing(4) for them in Engla nd. There are four parts to the paper The first describes the development o f a positive action government program (the Black and Minority Ethnic Housi ng Association Strategy) and explains the difficulty of predicting needs, e specially with regard to the time dimension involved. The second part is co ncerned with design features of individual dwellings and suggests that a ba lance should be struck between providing purpose-designed dwellings and app lying the same standards of provision to all social housing units (preferri ng "upward" to "downward" convergence). The third considers financial const raints of the British context and argues for a change of emphasis to allow more of the available expenditure to be in the form of capital investment a nd less to be allocated to repairs and maintenance. The fourth addresses ne ighborhood planning issues, in particular the problem of whether homes for minority tenants should be dispersed among those for the mainstream populat ion or gathered together in groups.