Housing with Respect

The Housing with Respect project was the culmination of a long association Devon & Cornwall Housing Association (DCHA) had with the Plymouth Racial Equality Council (REC). The three-year project was established in November 2003 following a successful bid to the Housing Corporation through a Community Training and Enabling Grant.

In partnership with Westcountry Housing Association, Tamar Housing Association and Plymouth City Council, a Black and Minority Ethnic Advisory Group (BME) was set up in response to the need to meet the challenges posed to housing providers in the Race Equality Code of Practice, published by the Housing Corporation in partnership with the National Housing Federation and the Commission for Racial Equality.(CRE)

Summary of the project

The group established the need for the creation of a Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Support Worker whose role would be to:

• establish, service and maintain the BME Housing Advisory Group in Plymouth, through which the partner organisations could develop common models of good practice
• provide support to BME residents of the Partner RSLs
• assist in the development and production of policies and procedures in dealing with racial harassment
• provide an advocacy service for BME residents of the partner organisations which will include direct case work
• provide training and capacity building for BME residents and staff of RSLs
• provide advice on all aspects of policies and procedures that may impact on BME residents
• develop closer links with non-partner RSLs on race issues
• develop a protocol and service level agreement between the Plymouth Racial Equality Council and the RSLs.

Intended outcomes

The outcomes for the project, as agreed with the Housing Corporation, would include:

• the provision of strong tangible evidence that BME residents, experiencing or at risk of racial incidents, were given the best support available. This would be monitored through regular reports from the project worker to the advisory group.
• an established training programme put in place based on the needs of each partner RSL, with capacity building training made available for RSL BME residents.
• a three year business plan with both an exit strategy and research into identifying ways of expanding the project
• the project to ultimately become a model of good practice for the involvement of minority and excluded groups in resident participation.