Housing; a perfect storm of complexity
The problem with systems change is that we’re impatient for impact. It’s all too easy for the complexity of the housing system to leave behind the people who need its security the most. The reality of the housing system is that it’s so complex and adaptable that individual efforts often focus on solutions which provide (well-meaning and highly valuable yet) symptomatic relief, for a minority of people.
The reality of being homeless often focuses on street homelessness as the most visible form, but just because you have a home doesn’t mean you’re safe, or secure. When I was 15 and found myself unable to stay at home, I was unofficially ‘placed’ with a relative with a serious alcohol addiction by social services who shortly after disappeared. After a short time I was fortunate enough to secure a place at a supported accommodation scheme where I found it was easy for the small support network I had to assume all was well. The reality was, even when I managed to get a job, it resulted in huge debts attempting to cover housing benefit shortfalls and having to pay for the support elements of my housing myself. Obviously when you’re 16, living on your own and get a job you’re sorted right?
Thankfully, I received great support from a few key people who helped me discover my path but I am increasingly conscious to the fact that the environment for people in my former situation, at risk of homelessness, those just trying to survive day to day or bring up a family is getting increasingly more difficult.
The recent white paper released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) acknowledged what everyone else seems to have known for some time, that the UK is in fact in a housing crisis. We require 225,000–275,000 more homes per year to keep up with population growth alone. In 2015–16 there were over 250,000 new homes granted planning permission, but just over 150,000 completed. This happens because the inflated valuations in the housing market mean that houses can “earn” more empty than the people living in them. In 2015, the average home in the South East increased in value by £29,000 whilst average pay in the region was £24,542. The average home in London made its owner more than £22 per hour during the working week in 2015.
The housing crisis is disproportionately impacting low and middle earners in the UK, and more worryingly are recent statistics which suggest a racial disparity in ownership. Home buying for first time buyers is becoming increasingly unachievable. Our social housing system is both under-supplied and challenged by welfare reform. The private rented sector is largely unregulated and offers homes which are taking an increasing higher percentage of household income whilst a significant proportion still do not meet decent homes standards.
The paper indicates only three key challenges and areas for improvement:
1. Over 40% of Local Authorities do not have sufficient plans to meet projected growth in their area
2. The pace of building is too slow
3. The structure of the market inhibits supply
We know that in the long run it’s cheaper to run a more sustainable home and with evidence backing up Housing First models in America, we know that giving people homes could save the tax payer money, even if you really want to remove the moral obligation to do so and focus on the money. So why are we so slow to share and adapt solutions?
The problem with the housing market is not that it’s broken, and not entirely to do with structure. It’s not designed to help people in the most need to access good quality homes that provide safety and security, as well as an opportunity to build a better life. Housing in the UK is perceived as a reflection of worth and we need to change our attitudes to ownership, social housing, property and start having conversations about how we build the best homes which serve each part of the spectrum affording people choice, access and governance, if not ownership, for all stages of the life cycle.
Why systems thinking might work where other attempts have failed.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R Buckminster
We are seeing examples of collective action changing the way people, institutions, academics, policy makers and commissioners join forces to create collective impact. Creating the conditions for a collective responsibility for driving change toward a common agenda using collective insight, shared measurement processes and mutually reinforcing activities.
Following the death of a local boy, by young perpetrators whom had been known to local services and in receipt of targeted support, research by The Winch, uncovered a myriad of piecemeal, targeted activities which were resulting in an ultimately, siloed and dysfunctional, self-serving system. In the North Camden Zone a collective impact movement has been developed to build an impact movement which creates place-based systems change for children and young people in North Camden. Local agencies are developing an advanced form of structured cross-sector collaboration to tackle intractable poverty to create a place which is great for every child to grow up. This is based on an American model of collective impact which has been serving to take a system thinking approach to tackling intractable social problems through structured collaboration.
The opportunity to adopt systems thinking practice into housing might enable the type of changes required at a structural level to create more sustainable and long-term impacts, but to do so we need to bring together the collective insight of those within the system, as well as disruptors, social entrepreneurs and people with lived experience to determine our common goals and develop collaborative approaches.
Let’s not hinder social entrepreneur’s ability to act but give them the creative freedom to use their entrepreneurial talents and eye for impact on some of the most complex challenges we face today.
