Case study: Stonewall Housing
Under threat from London Councils' cuts!
Stonewall Housing is the only organisation in London providing housing advice and supported housing to LGBT people. The housing advice service and the LGBT Youth Homelessness Prevention Network are funded exclusively by London Councils and receive over 1,000 calls every year from across all London boroughs. People experience a range of problems, such as homophobic and transphobic harassment, domestic abuse, homelessness, repossession, overcrowding, landlord disputes and forced marriage.
50% of callers state that their housing problem is directly related to their sexual orientation or gender identity and many fear approaching mainstream advice services.
Continued regional funding for Stonewall Housing will help local authorities reach their rough sleeping targets by preventing LGBT people ending up on the streets and will help local authorities comply with the new Single Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010 which will expect local authorities to meet the needs of LGBT people as a specific equality strand. Stonewall Housing also adds benefit locally by attracting funding to develop innovative services, such as the Older LGBT Housing Group and the LGBT Domestic Abuse Forum, which will improve the services on offer to LGBT people in every London borough.
One of Stonewall Housing’s clients said of the service they received: “When I first got in contact I was literally on the streets and in fear of my life. They have helped me with so much more than just my housing. I now feel I have my life back"
These examples demonstrate the complex needs of LGBT Londoners that therefore require a London wide response because LGBT needs can become invisible at a local level. Most local authority and health service providers do not monitor sexual orientation. In 2009 only 31% of mainstream providers routinely collected this data~ (compared to 93% for gender, 91% for age, 89% for race, 69% for disability and 58% for religion/belief.) This means these needs are likely to be absent from the planning of local services.
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~‘Where to Turn?’ a review of mental health services in England conducted by PACE (2009)