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Tackling the links between

housing and poverty

Tackling the links between housing and poverty

Chair: Jim Strang, Chief Executive, Parkhead HA and

CIH Governing Board Member

Jacquie Dale, Director of Housing and Community Services, JRHT

Kevin Dodd, CEO, Wakefield and District Housing

John Harris, Journalist and Author

Tackling the links between housing

and poverty

Jacquie Dale

Director of Housing & Community Services

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust

JRF/JRHT

JRF - independent endowed policy and research

foundation

Spend approx. £10m per year on policy and research

JRHT - a small housing and care provider

Around 2,500 homes in York, Yorkshire and Hartlepool

JRF and JRHT: Our work programmes and aims

PO

VE

RT

Y Our aim:

To identify the

root causes of

poverty and

injustice

PL

AC

E Our aim:

To support

resilient

communities

where people

thrive

AN

AG

EIN

G

SO

CIE

TY

Our aim:

To respond

positively to the

opportunities

and challenges

of an ageing

society

Joseph Rowntree Foundation and

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust

search

demonstrate

influence

What we do

What do we mean by poverty?

The big picture on poverty

What it looks and feels like for people in the communities where we work

Around a fifth of the UK population experience poverty in a given year

6.1 million people in poverty are in working households

The Links Between Housing and Poverty

An extra 3 million people would be classed as in poverty

if we measured poverty after housing costs

The poverty rate would double in London

We would also add a million more to the child poverty rate

Problematic Debt

Benefits getting even tighter

Low pay, no pay cycle

4.4 million jobs pay less than £7 per hour

£20 billion cut to the social security budget by 2015–16

Developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy

Becoming an anti-poverty landlord

Becoming an anti-poverty employer

Developing an anti-poverty strategy for the UK

Being an anti-poverty communicator

Becoming an Anti-Poverty Landlord

Working with residents on case-by-case basis

Financial inclusion and benefits advice

Pay

Affordable credit

Poverty test for JRHT policies

Becoming an Anti-Poverty Employer

Money management and real help with debt

Job Progression

Pay and rewards - the Living Wage

Paid internships

Developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy for the UK

Our outputs to inform national and local anti-poverty

strategies

Encourage a debate - what would low-poverty UK would

really be like?

Aim to assess and strengthen the political consensus on

how to reduce poverty

Tackling Housing Poverty

Four year research and development programme: to improve the housing offer for those experiencing poverty,

regardless of tenure

Working with NHF– how can we build more affordable homes?

Working with Crisis to produce the Homelessness Monitor

Housing and Migration: The housing and migration network

The housing and migration: a UK guide to issues and solutions

Does housing have a role in alleviating poverty?

Challenge policy

Create our own solutions

Sharing our solutions

Links at www.jrf.org.uk

Anti-poverty strategies for the UK

The links between housing and poverty

Monitoring poverty and social exclusion

A minimum income standard for the UK

The Housing and Migration Network

www.jrf.org.uk

@jrf_uk

@theJRHT

@jacquiedale

JosephRowntreeFoundation

Tackling the links between

housing and poverty

Kevin Dodd

CEO, Wakefield and

District Housing

delivering promises, improving lives

Challenges of

Welfare Reform Kevin Dodd

Chief Executive

Wakefield and District Housing

delivering promises, improving lives

People Property Place

delivering promises, improving lives

Where is Wakefield?

delivering promises, improving lives

Challenges in Wakefield • Wakefield is the 67th most deprived district in England.

• 12.5% population live in deprived neighbourhoods.

• 9,500 people seeking work.

• 13,500 children under 16 live in households claiming benefits.

• 21% of children in live in poverty, rising to 50% in some areas.

• 28.6% of households are fuel poor, compared to 18%

nationally.

delivering promises, improving lives

delivering promises, improving lives

Rent

delivering promises, improving lives

Build

delivering promises, improving lives

Added Value …

delivering promises, improving lives

For tenants to have

the choice!

Why did WDH want to be

involved in the Demonstration

Project?

delivering promises, improving lives

Cognitive Dissonance –

The Conversation! • Governments View - people are rational beings.

• Housing View - change a person’s beliefs to change

their behaviour.

• Governments View - reframing - help to

re-examine beliefs and develop healthier ways of viewing

the situation.

delivering promises, improving lives

The Stroop Effect Blue Red Green Yellow Black

Orange Pink Violet Blue Black Red

Orange Pink Green Yellow Blue Red

Green Blue Red Black Orange Pink

Violet Orange Green Pink Yellow

Green Orange Blue Red Black Blue

Orange Pink Green Blue Red Black

delivering promises, improving lives

WDH’s Income Profile • £54m – Pensioners

• £75m – Working Age Tenants

- £30m – Low Income Household

- £45m – Housing Benefit

£129m – Annual Rent

delivering promises, improving lives

Impact of Universal Credit

• £45m – Housing Benefit

• £6m – Under Occupancy

• £30m – Low Income

£81m – At Risk

delivering promises, improving lives

Universal Credit Transition

delivering promises, improving lives

Too Early To Tell…..!

• Voids: + 22%.

• Increase by 25% in mutual exchanges.

• 42% increase, 2 / 3 bedroom properties.

• Former tenants arrears increased.

• Bids for 3 bedroom properties dropped by 40%.

delivering promises, improving lives

Demonstration Project…..! • 94% payment rate!

• Approximately 50% of tenants are using Direct Debit.

• Average debt £180 per tenant.

• 229 tenants have reverted back.

• No evictions.

• Admin costs £250+ tenant.

delivering promises, improving lives

Responsibilities!

delivering promises, improving lives

Case Studies

+

-

delivering promises, improving lives

The Sting…Bedroom Tax +…!

• 340 in project affected by Bedroom Tax.

• + £5.5k Bedroom and Council Tax.

• Demonstration Project more likely to fail.

• Benefit cap to come!

delivering promises, improving lives

Projected Debt…!

delivering promises, improving lives

=

Reduced Income

Universal Credit Equation

Arrears Cost of

Collection Bank

Charges

Cost of

Admin

Cost of

Cash Flow

x 20,000

+ + + +

+ Bedroom Tax

=

Viability

delivering promises, improving lives

Viability

delivering promises, improving lives

The Millennium Year …

delivering promises, improving lives

Housing Pays!

People

Year

delivering promises, improving lives

delivering promises, improving lives

Income vs

Expenditure

The Game Plan!

Tackling the links between

housing and poverty

John Harris

Journalist and Author

Poverty, social security and welfare reform

John Harris, Summer 2013

• “Well, sorry you can’t feed your kids, and youth services where you live have been cut by 100%, but you should have a look at these really exciting plans for a couple of new airports and the widening of the M4.”

•MORALITY

• ECONOMICS

• Retailers, small businesses, large corporations, city councils and the exchequer are all skint. They desperately need goods moving from shelves, shops restocking, banks lending against renewed cash flow, employment growing and taxes being paid.

• There is no shortage of ideas for this, long rehearsed in this column. They range from boosting social benefits for a year to temporary tax reliefs, scrappage schemes and time-limited spending vouchers. Given present unemployment and spare capacity it is inconceivable that such an injection would be inflationary.

• The Bank of England could print £500 per head in notes and dump them in every private bank account in the land for less than it has given its banking friends. It would be the quickest way of injecting cash into the veins of the economy "off balance sheet".

• There is an alternative.

• 64% of us believe that the benefits system either doesn’t work or is “failing” (ComRes, 2012).

• 40% of people think that all benefit recipients are scroungers (ComRes, 2012).

• Only 20% of people under 34 think the welfare state is one of Britain’s proudest creations (Ipsos Mori, 2013)

• Nearly half of them think that if you’re on benefits, it’s down to laziness rather than bad luck (Ipsos Mori, 2013).

• Is government doing enough to offset effective benefit cuts with positive and proactive measures to challenge cultures of worklessness and support training and employment opportunities?

• No.

• “They didn’t have many ideas. They didn’t come up with any solutions apart from, ‘Look on the internet, look at jobs that are advertised, and apply for them.’”

• “They basically put you in a room with about 12 other people, sat you in front of a computer and said, ‘You’ve got an hour to find five jobs.’”

• Judge’s last job before becoming unemployed was as a hotel barman, and he says that when A4e staff pointed him towards particular parts of the local job market, it was “always in the same areas: bars or hotels. It was never expanded.” Instead, after a job offer from a friend, he borrowed £1500 from his parents and gained a coach driver’s license, leading to him starting work.

• john.harris@guardian.co.uk

Tackling the links between

housing and poverty

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