- Conference
- 2012 National LGBT Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2012
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference believes that providing a sufficient stock of affordable decent-quality social housing is essential to help address the housing crisis in the United Kingdom, and especially the extreme difficulties that young people are experiencing in securing and retaining a home of their own.
Conference recalls with heavy heart the claims by George Osborne in 2010 that fairness demanded the introduction of housing benefit caps; an excuse used to justify reducing access to affordable housing for those on benefits. Conference has previously expressed our concerns that from 1st January 2012 a single person under 35 will only be able to claim Housing Benefit for bed-sit accommodation or one room in shared accommodation. Conference is now further dismayed at the Con Dems latest proposals to cut housing benefit entirely for young people under 25.
Like most of this administration’s policies this is based on a narrow minded ideology and populist rhetoric with full knowledge of the potentially damaging consequences.
This Conference further believes that changes in housing benefit, the introduction of fixed-term tenancies, and other policies are often discriminatory against young LGBT people and are introduced without consideration of an equality impact assessment. In service delivery, there is a widespread view that sexual orientation and gender identity issues are often ignored or given insufficient attention in policies and in equalities training which leads to a lack of consistency. Changes in housing and benefit policies which force young LGBT people to stay in homes where they are at risk, or force them to relocate frequently (which can lead to problems of establishing a local network for personal support etc.), are unacceptable.
Downing Street’s blinkered ideologically driven cuts in the welfare state disproportionately affects women and people on low income and forces many young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people into a life of homelessness by conveniently ignoring that not all young people are equally able to remain in their parental home. Redundancies and job changes of key individuals who championed equality in their workplace for service users is also dramatically reducing the support available to young LGBT people. We are all too aware through our work with organisations like the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) that young LGBT people are less likely to stay in their parental homes, they can suffer domestic violence forcing them to flee, or have been asked to leave just because they came out. Charities like AKT have seen a rise in young LGBT people asking for their help.
Parental rejection on discovery of their child’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity is still an issue with many facing the prospect of losing their homes on coming out or when being outed. The prospect of staying at home with parents or family members can bring with it openly hostile attitudes or even violence. The price of staying at home, for some, includes attempts by family members to ‘cure’ them of their sexual or gender identities, through reparative therapy, religious ritual, torture, corrective rape or forced marriage. Many are forced to move to cities in the hope of discovering a supportive community and a social network, only to find themselves living a life on the streets.
With few hostels being welcoming or safe spaces for young LGBT people, where they often face homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse from other residents, the problem of homelessness within this demographic is compounded still further. Isolation and lack of money can also lead to homeless young people abusing drugs and alcohol and/or being forced into sex work to make money or ensure a roof over their heads.
Conference therefore calls upon the National LGBT Committee to:
1. Work with the Local Government Service Group to defend Youth Services and ensure services reach young LGBT people;
2. Continue supporting the work of Defend Council Housing;
3. Campaign for all housing policy and benefits changes to be subject to rigorous equality impact assessments which are acted upon;
4. Work with the Labour Link committee to ensure the issues are raised in the Labour Party in order to seek political commitment on challenging the issues;
5. Encourage branches and self organised groups to support charities such as the AKT.