The public health significance of prior homelessness: findings on multimorbidity and mental health from a nationally representative survey

Dr Natasha Chilman is a Research Associate and Teaching Fellow in Population Mental Health at King’s College London (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/natasha-chilman).

In this seminar, Natasha presents a study from her recently completed PhD research, which explored inequities in mental health and multiple conditions for people who have previously experienced homelessness. Using secondary data from nationally representative surveys of people living in private households in England, she examined self-reported histories of homelessness and associations with anxiety, depression, physical conditions, alcohol and substance dependence, and multimorbidity (co-occurring health conditions). Natasha discussed the key findings from this study, how people with lived experience of homelessness were involved in this work, and how these findings are being translated into policy and practice.

You can read the paper this seminar is based on here: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796024000659

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The importance of stable housing in social capital development and utilisation: how homelessness undermines reciprocity, recognition, and autonomy.

This seminar led by I-SPHERE’s own Dr Nadia Ayed along with Dr Andrew Clark from the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia explores the notion of social capital in the context of homelessness. Nadia says “We make a case for stable housing being considered a precondition for utilising social capital to ameliorate, rather than exacerbate vulnerability for people experiencing homelessness. We will discuss our framework for conceptualising the relationship between stable housing and social capital. Specifically, we will highlight the crucial role of stable housing in facilitating both the accumulation but also effective use of social capital. Herein we’ll touch upon people’s ability to practice reciprocity, achieve recognition and exercising autonomy (or lack thereof when in the absence of stable housing).”

Watch again here And you can read the article it is based on here – Full article: The importance of stable housing in social capital development and utilisation: how homelessness undermines reciprocity, recognition, and autonomy

The third and final webinar in the series, Racism and Homelessness, Exposed: Identifying and Addressing Inequalities in Systems, took place on Wednesday 7th May. The seminar highlights inequalities within the homelessness, housing and wider systems that are creating the conditions that mean people from Black and minoritised ethnic groups are disproportionately more likely to experience precarious housing and homelessness, in its worst forms, and for longer.

Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick presents relevant key findings of I-SPHERE’s long running research programme on Homelessness amongst Black and Minoritised Communities in the UK including new evidence not yet published and there are presentations and discussions with Dr Shabna Begum CEO of the Runnymede Trust, Jean Templeton CEO of St Basils and Chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority Homelessness Taskforce and Dr Nick Clare, Associate Professor at Nottingham University.

Racism & Homelessness, Exposed: Identifying & Addressing Inequalities in Systems (3) | Crisis UK

Watch again as Kristin Aarland and Jardar Sørvoll of HOUSINGWEL, centre for housing and welfare research (Oslo Metropolitan University), present some of the core areas of research at the centre, which is funded by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. The talk covers key findings and theoretical perspectives from HOUSINGWEL’s study of the very residual Norwegian social rented sector, as well as the centre’s comprehensive registry-based database, and quantitative research on the relationship between housing and welfare at the individual level. The presentation also highlights results from an ongoing investigation into differential treatment (“discrimination”) of ethnic minority applicants in the public starter mortgage program in Norway, a programme that caters to prospective homeowners that are unable to secure (sufficient) mortgage financing in the regular market.   

You may also be interested in reading recent articles from Kirstin and Jardar Full article: The great social housing trade-off. ‘Insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in urban social rental housing in Norway and Childhood Housing Tenure and Young Adult Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Sibling Comparisons in Norway – ScienceDirect

Lynne McMordie, Research Fellow, I-SPHERE

Violence against women and homelessness

This seminar explores the intersection between violence against women and homelessness, drawing on recent qualitative research in Northern Ireland that illustrates how abuse by intimate partners, family members, and strangers can lead to both acute and chronic housing insecurity. Many women reported being forced from their homes – sometimes fleeing multiple times – even when they held legal tenancy or ownership rights. Systemic failures, including inconsistent police responses, inaccessible or weakly enforced protection orders, and exposure to further violence within homelessness services, further entrenched these cycles of violence and homelessness. Women also described severe mental health impacts, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality, with some initiating or escalating substance use as a coping mechanism. This functioned to compound barriers to safety and support and exposed them to the most harmful forms of homelessness, including rough sleeping. In this seminar, we will examine these findings and their implications for policy and practice.

View the powerful infographic and read the full research report.

Emma Adams

Trauma during homelessness and its impact on mental health: reflecting on findings from an international systematic review and qualitative study in North East England

Trauma often occurs before, and as a result of homelessness. Efforts to create trauma-informed health, social and housing services are underway globally. Trauma, if unaddressed, can lead to poor mental health and substance use. Although the importance of trauma during childhood is well-established, less is known about trauma during homelessness. To address this, Emma Adams has been leading a programme of qualitative work looking to better understand trauma during homelessness and its impact on mental health. This has been possible through working collaboratively with people with lived experience of homelessness as core members of the research team. In this seminar, Emma will draw on the findings from across the ongoing work, including an international systematic review and qualitative study in an urban setting and two seaside towns in North East England. She will share learnings on trauma during homelessness and how it shapes subsequent experiences of homelessness and mental health.

Emma Adams is a NIHR Doctoral Fellow at Newcastle University.

The second webinar in the Racism and Homelessness, Exposed series examined addressing racism through services. Chaired by colleagues at Race Equality Foundation the event included presentations from Jill McIntyre of I-SPHERE and Georgia Leith of Crisis on research around racism in services, followed by presentations from a panel sharing their experience of tackling such issues. This included Henri Baptiste from Pathway Housing Solutions on Community Housing, Harinder Birring of Shelter on their review of services and Daisy Lunn of Solace on the Hopscotch Housing First Project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCicuIwfl_E

The third and final seminar in the series is scheduled for Monday 31st March at 1pm.

To watch the first seminar by Crisis go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FgzOppkhg8 and read the brilliant lived experience research report the seminar was based on at https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/homelessness-knowledge-hub/homelessness-intersectionality/experiences-of-racism-and-homelessness/

Daniel Edmiston

Indentured: benefit deductions, debt recovery and welfare disciplining

The UK social security system performs an important role as a creditor and debt collector for many benefit claimants, with more affected by deductions than formal welfare conditionality or sanctions. Deductions, then, are central to understanding low-income life in the UK. Daniel will present research which draws on a mixed-methods project to explore the policy rationale, administration and effects of benefit deductions at a particular moment of crisis. New analysis of statistical releases suggests increasing indebtedness and an Inverse Care Law, whereby UK social security performs worst for those who need it most. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the height of the cost-of-living crisis, this research explores how deductions affect the lives and trajectories of low-income claimants over time. The analysis offered details how deductions weaponize debt, often in ways that financialise benefit claimants and their entitlements that prove counter-productive to the stated policy objectives of deductions: worsening the poverty-debt trap and pushing people (further) away from the labour market.

Daniel Edmiston is a British Academy Wolfson Fellow in the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE. He is also Principal Investigator of the WHOCOUNTS project in the Institute of Government and Public Policies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Dr Amy Clair, University of Adelaide

Housing, health, and policy coherence

Housing is an important social determinant of health, and much research has been dedicated to understanding this relationship. However, much is focused on specific health outcomes and individual aspects of housing. In combination these approaches risk preventing a comprehensive and broad understanding of the relationship between housing and health, potentially resulting in underestimates of the importance of housing to health (and vice versa). To contribute towards filling this gap Amy outlines an approach that builds on the Salutogenic approach developed by sociologist of health Aaron Antonovsky, the housing niches approach developed by social and environmental psychologist Susan Saegert, alongside theories from other disciplines such as social harm and slow violence, to develop a comprehensive framework of how housing policy, and social policies more generally, can be linked with health. Watch again now

Professor Andrea Williamson, University of Glasgow

Applying a ‘missingness’ lens to healthcare for inclusion health populations

‘Missingness’ in health care is the ‘repeated tendency not to take up offers of care such that it has a negative impact on the person and their life chances’. Recent whole population Scottish epidemiological work has shown shocking associated mortality. In current NIHR funded research we have explored the causes of missingness by publishing a realist review and conducting interviews with 60 experts by experience of missingness, and professionals. Andrea Williamson Professor of General Practice and Inclusion Health at the University of Glasgow presents this work and outline progress in developing a set of interventions to address missingness and consider the importance of this work for Inclusion Health settings; like homelessness health. Watch again now