On Wednesday 10th December Positive About Inclusion was delighted to jointly host a North East regional Pride in Housing event with Karbon Homes and Stonewall Housing.
The online lunchtime Pride in Housing event provided an opportunity for social housing providers to learn more about The LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge – a pledge that demonstrates a housing provider’s commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion for colleagues and customers. And Human Rights Day was the perfect day on which to hold the event!
The LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge has gained significant traction in other parts of the country due to it improving safety, support and inclusivity through a FREE framework that supports housing providers to take tangible action. However, whilst the North East has a fantastic and strongly held commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion we have been slower than some other regions to embrace and sign up to the Pledge.
The Pride in Housing event was designed to raise awareness of the Pledge and to provide opportunities for social housing providers who haven’t yet signed up to hear from representatives from organisations who are on their Pledge journey.
The event started with a welcome from Lucy Malarkey, one of the Directors at Positive About Inclusion who provided the context and rationale for Pride in Housing. Attendees then heard from Jack Mason, the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge Manager who talked about the research, ‘No Place Like Home?’, conducted by HouseProud and the University of Surrey that had informed the development of the Pledge. Jack explained that the Pledge is a free scheme that all social housing providers (housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs) can sign up to, to demonstrate their commitment to LGBTQ+ resident equality and support. Having signed up an organisation has access to a wealth of advice, guidance and case studies to support their commitment to inclusion.
Jack then introduced Ged McLoughlin, co-chair of Rainbow Roofs, the LGBTQ+ group of social housing tenants from across the North of England. Ged powerfully shared his experiences of hate crime as a social housing residents and how Rainbow Roofs can provide support to tenants to tackle stigma and hate crime in their communities.
Attendees then heard from Niki Stockton from South Lakes Housing and Di Keller from Karbon Homes. Niki and Di shared the journey their organisations had been on and why signing the Pledge was so important for them – not just because of the volatile social and political climate, nor the increasingly high priority on inclusion from regulatory bodies but because signing up to the Pledge is aligned with their organisation’s values, it’s doing the right thing!
The event concluded with a shout out for regional organisations to come together in the New Year to explore collaborative opportunities. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can be a part of this collaborative group then please contact us.
