Housing associations and ethnic minorities

Officer discretion and minority ethnic housing provision

“…Similarly to the local authority sector there also appears to be, in addition to the discriminatory judgements of officers, an institutionalisation of processes which lead to racial inequality. Niner (1987) demonstrates the way in which discretion may lead to poorer housing outcomes for minority ethnic communities even where it is not palpably racialised, notably where it fails to respond to the diversity of housing need, whilst the CRE (1993), Dalton and Daghiian (1989), and Julierme (in Jeffery and Seagar, 1993) also demonstrate the role of institutional procedures in causing discriminatory outcomes. For example Dalton and Daglilian note that three of the four associations in their study temporarily closed their accommodation waiting lists, with word of mouth rather than formal publicity used to spread the information that the list had reopened.…”

“…Whilst both the local authority and the housing association sector were required by the 1976 Race Relations Act not to unlawfully discriminate against minority ethnic households, the local authority sector was also faced with wider duties under section 71 of the Act; to eliminate unlawful discrimination, and promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups. The absence of this legal imperative may be significant in terms of the race equality performance of housing associations, since Niner (1984) notes that external research or pressure provided the catalyst to address race equality issues for two of her three case study housing associations.…”