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Techniques of Independent

LivingYoung People’s Practice of Tenancy Sustainment

Alasdair B R Stewart

University of Glasgow

1 Young People & Tenancy Sustainment

NewHomelessness

Housing (Scotland) Act 2001

Homelessness etc Act 2003

Pathways into homelessness

Pathways through homelessness

Pathways out homelessness

Harding (2004: 33) conducted in Newcastle on young people in independent tenancies found 44.9% did not sustain their tenancy for over a year.

Location Authority Area

16 – 17 year olds General Population

Glasgow 32% 20%

Edinburgh 37% 19%

Tenancy Sustainment Rates

SCSH (2007)

T1Enter Tenancy

T210-12 Months

Later

Measuring tenancy sustainment

Other Measures

“Landlord's“ point of view

SustainingT1Enter Tenancy

T210-12 Months

Later

Sustained

Non-sustained

Process Reduction

Structure

Individual

Process Reduction and dualism

IncomeSpending

Needs

Skills

2 Longitudinal Qualitative Research

Two waves of indepth qualitative interviewing

25 Participants

18 Participants

1st W

ave

2nd W

ave

Participants

17 – 24 age range

10 LA areas

11 Organisations

6 Care-leavers

6 Changes in house-hold formations

6 left their tenancy during fieldwork

period

6 had previous tenancies before the

first interview

3 Techniques of Independent Living

Returning to practice

Social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which mislead theory into mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the

comprehension of this practice. (Marx & Engels, 1998: 578)

Bourdieu – theory of practice

However

[T]hey should not be afraid, as Foucault (1980: 53-54) intimated of Nietzsche’s thought, “to use

it, to deform it, to make it groan and protest” (Bourdieu & Wacqaunt 1992: xiv)

Embodied Sensitivity

Interdependent Relations

Capital

Tenant

Tenancy

Pressures of the tenancy

Tenant

Tenancy

Constellation of Interdependent Relations

Family Position

Economic

Position

Tenancy Sustainment

Practice

Techniques of cooking

Techniques of cleaning

Techniques of furnishing & decorating

Techniques with others

Techniques of budgeting

Techniques of securing &

maintaining an income

Techniques of Securing and Maintaining an Income

Benefits

Employment

When I went [… to] get booked in [the supported accommodation] they […] gave me a number and told me tae go tae the Jobcentre and start a claim. (Zoe)

Just helping us to look for a job [is a good aspect of the local job club] so we’re not staying on benefits all the time […] cause I hate being on benefits an no working. (Ryan)

Welfare & Symbolic Capital of Recognition

They says they werenae giving me it cause I was under 18 and your meant to be 18 when you sign on but its different circumstances when you're like homeless and things like that em so I got dunni-I think I got denied twice actually and then I phoned them up and the wife's like no no no on the phone. (Lesley)

I got 6 points so my ESA stopped then, err, the last time on my medical I got zero points, ‘cause the doctor didn’t understand me at all. (Marianne)

To access benefits participants’ situations had to successfully translated into a symbolic capital of recognition.

Modification of pressures

I’m not paying the rent really (Graham)

I don’t have to pay it (Lucy)

I just didn’t want my benefits to be stopped really, otherwise I’d lose my housing benefit and I would have lost the house as well. (Mike)

With rent paid through Housing Benefit the pressure shifted from paying rent to maintaining a benefits claim.

Charlesworth (2000: 81) “Fortnightly Ritualized Humiliation”

Annoying (Alan)

Shameful (Lesley)

Too much hassle (Simon)

[Making me] even more depressed (Mike)

[They] play games with ye (Rachel)

[They] mess ye about so much (Simon)

I’d just love tae get oot there an fuckin no be pure depressed man every, like, two weeks going tae the Job Centre […] I’d jist like tae get oot there an earn ma money. (Tom)

Precarious employment

[W]ould depend the hours and it would depend, you know, if it was 16 and under I would, if it was anything between 16 and 33 I wouldn’t, but if it was 35 or over I would. (Graham)

I’m willing to get a job no problem, just help me find a child-minder in [the local area], you know, that picks up from this school or, you know, help me find a job that’s ten till two so that the child-minder doesn’t need to pick him up, then I’d be straight back to work. I’d be working *laugh* tomorrow if that happened, you know. (Alison)

There was no lack in desire to work but a lack of jobs that suited participants circumstances.

Budget Sheet

Participant number ………

Have any unpaid debts? YES / NO

Income (weekly/monthly)

Wages £

Benefits £

£

£

£

Total income £

Outgoing (weekly/monthly)

Rent £

Council Tax £

Utilities (gas & electric) £

TV Licence £

Groceries £

Other Shopping £

Travel £

Telephone / Mobile £

£

£

Total outgoing £

A balanced budget is an outcome of budgeting

not the process.

Techniques of Budgeting

Changes in Sensitivity

Rubbish & Crap versus Stuff […] I […] had to get

Sensitivity is an "acceptance of one's place, a sense of limits" (Bourdieu 1985: 728) I didn't know what

money was really, I would jist spend it on anything, literally…[later] it kinda slowed itself down, eh, I wasn't spendin it on crap, I was spending it on stuff that I actually had to get. (David)

It's weird to actually having my own money like having to go buy food and all that dinnae expect everythin to be as expense as it was but then after a couple of weeks I kind of got the hang of it (Carly)

Budgeting is practical accomplishment

 A just dinnae get it. That sounds weird but… a dinnae have a budget plan, it just works oot *laugh*, like, a just have it… it’s like programmed into ma head, like, the stuff that I would need tae get and it kinda just works, [...] it just balances itself oot somehow. (Robert)

I've learnt the ropes and I know how to handle the money situation with the limited amount of money, so I'm coping with it. (John)

For those on Jobseekers budget sheets useful for correcting a technique but not used unless later refinement is needed.

The tempo of budgeting

I do my shopping then] cause that's the day my benefits go through, and I know if I do it on a Monday after I've had my benefits through and after the weekend, I won't have any money left. (Ryan)

The temporality of budgeting is forged by the timing of payments and the amount received.

I prefer to pay them like monthly rather than weekly ‘cause like I get my money every fortnight, erm, and that’s usually just for food, then [my son’s] Child Benefit goes in every week and that pays for his nursery and his nappies, and like his Child Tax Credits go in at the end of the month and that’s like for the big bills, like the TV licence, the phone and like the gas and electricity, that sort of stuff. (Lucy)

Economy of Needs Over Wants

When I was at home I’d […], buy what I wanted at the weekends [...] But obviously now it’s different cause I need to look after myself, I need to buy what I need and not what I want. (John)

Low levels of income results in the power ratio between the tenant’s other desires and meeting the pressures of the tenancy tilt towards the latter.

I don't think £100 every fortnight is something to live on. I really don't. […] how are you meant to get your gas and electric, your food […] we all want our little bits and bobs, you know… […] you just cannae buy anything that you really want anymore. (Graham)

“Getting on with life”

Just [more] support [is needed] just like get daeing something with [young people’s] lives like moving forward instead of being stuck in the same place all the time. (Vicky)

I like it sometimes when I'm in by myself, but sometimes I get lonely and it's boring because I'm just used to doing that same thing when I come home, and it's just really annoying. (Jenny)

Tenancies were not an end in-themselves but seen as component of establishing independence.

When techniques are disrupted

I'm still eating stuff I shouldnae really be but, I think it's mainly because of ma budget. Because I'm gettin money taken off me for, eh, crisis loans and budget loans so I'm havin to pay them back. (Michael)

[I’m] back [at] square one (John).

The disruption of techniques was felt as a move backwards and as reducing independence.

Welfare Reform

Increased sanctionsSingle benefit

payment

Monthly Payments Housing benefit paid to tenant

“Bedroom tax”Disability

assessments