Challenging the stigma of social housing

“The one thing I would want people to know and understand about social housing is that it plays a vital role in creating social inclusion and reducing inequality. If you’ve never encountered social housing, and that is a fortunate position to be in, you don’t understand the power of what a quality home with the right support can bring.”

David Ripley is the Chief Operating Officer at Stonewater, one of the leading affordable housing providers in the country. Having spent his career in social housing, Ripley has seen firsthand the transformative power that comes with having a home to call your own.

But he is also aware of the deep-rooted stigma faced by people living in social housing – something Stonewater sees in its day-to-day work. As an example, during one discussion with local political figures, the vulnerabilities of Stonewater’s customers were downplayed or disregarded when issues emerged. The need for tailored support wasn’t treated as important, reinforcing the misconception that residents facing challenges are obstacles rather than deserving of understanding and help.

Similarly, in some of its schemes, stigma can come to light in conflict between residents – particularly where antisocial behaviour stems from underlying dependency issues. In one case, Stonewater’s focus had been on addressing tensions fuelled by addiction through specialist support.

Yet this approach was not reflected in the public realm. A subsequent media report focused on eviction as the answer, overlooking the multi-agency support and interventions Stonewater had put in place.

This kind of simplification not only distorts the reality of the provider’s work but also contributes to broader stigma surrounding those who rely on social housing and its associated support services.

Ripley said: “There’s a misconception that social housing can lead to the slow decline of communities, and that these can be plagued with high levels of antisocial behaviour and crime.

“People living in social housing can be stereotyped as being work-shy.”

But as he points out, nothing could be further from the truth. “The reality of it is that you have people who are in full-time employment, with good, solid jobs – nurses, doctors, people within the fire and police forces, and in other professions as well. These are people whose needs are being met by social housing in a way that the open markets are not really providing for.”

As Ripley notes, social housing residents are a “very broad church”, hence Stonewater’s commitment to providing safe, affordable housing for people of all ages and backgrounds. Their services range from supported living schemes for older people to refuges for survivors of domestic violence and safe spaces for the LGBT+ community.

Stonewater has around 90,000 customers living in its homes but, contrary to a commonly held belief, the majority of these people are of working age. In fact, 75% of Stonewater customers are under the age of 54, compared to just 8% aged 71 and above.

“If you look at Generation X and Millennials, there’s a higher proportion of people living in our homes than there is in the UK national average. So, using Gen X as an example, they make up 22% of the UK population, but 31% of Stonewater’s. It’s similar for Millennials,” said Ripley. “We’re dealing with a lot more younger people than may be perceived from the outside.”

He added: “If you go back through time, you would have found a lot of third, fourth or fifth generations of families living in social housing all the way through.

“But what we’re seeing now is more and more first-time residents from those groups coming into the market.”

Of Stonewater’s 90,000 customers, 89% are UK nationals, which contradicts another common misconception that a lot of social housing is used to house immigrants. This myth proved particularly harmful during the 2024 summer riots.

“What we saw in particular communities at that time were residents being targeted because of their backgrounds and where their stories had originated from,” said Ripley.

“There was a large degree of misunderstanding about people in those communities.”

Although social media can undoubtedly be a tool for good, the dark side of social networks can fuel prejudice.

“You just have to go on any housing association page or news article and you see a lot of comments which are negative about the person or the people that the stories are about,” he said.

“You can see how that spreads, often from a place of misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge.”

He added: “I’ve seen this stigma impacting on people’s mental health, affecting their self-esteem, creating anxiety and feelings of shame and embarrassment.”

But Stonewater is on a mission to help social housing residents shed these misplaced feelings. It is doing this by encouraging people to get involved with their local community, fostering a sense of pride in where they live, and putting them front and centre in the decision-making process on resident and tenant scrutiny panels.

“We like to explore how we, as a social housing provider, can really enhance social mobility, offering stability and support, through community engagement initiatives and improving the way that we deliver in our communities,” said Ripley.

“Some of the areas where we’ve seen some really great engagement are in areas like our retirement living schemes, where customers have been involved in creating events, bringing people into those schemes to understand a bit more about the community that they live in, and also helping us as a provider to improve our services.

“We also host days where customers can get involved in things like estate walkabouts and doing big clean-ups and things of that nature. What that’s all driving towards is building that sense of community and sense of involvement and empowerment for people to work on and address the issues that matter to them.”

In summary, Stonewater’s goal is quite a simple one: it aims to give everybody the opportunity to have a place to call home, while robustly challenging the stigma of social housing.

“The more we can talk positively about the impact that the social housing sector has, and the breadth of the skills and the knowledge that the people who use the sector have as well, I think that’s a great thing for everyone moving forward,” said Ripley.

“The more that we stay true to the roots of what social housing is – giving people opportunities, helping to build them up, and giving them those pathways – I think that can create a powerful, lasting force for change as we look forward to the years to come.”

Stonewater.org