By Shona Stephen, Chief executive, Queens Cross Housing Association
AS the Scottish Government’s Year of the Young Person gets under way, our latest tenants’ survey has unveiled some sobering evidence of the scale of the task that faces every agency responsible for ensuring our young people have the best possible start in life.
With a 70 per cent return rate from eligible households among our 4,300 tenancies, the survey has given us a comprehensive and accurate snapshot of the real issues impacting our 8,000-plus residents in the northwest of Glasgow.
The results are a wake-up call about how much work needs to be done and how much poverty, particularly child poverty, continues to blight a significant number of our families.
We have known anecdotally from our staff working on the ground that high levels of poverty are still a significant factor in keeping people from fulfilling their own and their children’s potential. But now these survey figures reinforce what we see and deal with every day; the unacceptable impact that poverty has on people’s lives here. How it holds people back and consigns them to a life of uncertainty and stigma.
A child born into poverty is much more likely to remain in poverty and their children too. It becomes an accepted part of life.
This is a cycle of deprivation and limited life chances that we as a housing association are determined to help break.
Although there were some bright spots in the data, such as more tenants in work, 20 per cent as opposed to 15 per cent three years ago, 41 per cent of our tenants said they still relied on benefits for the majority of their income.
Of tenants surveyed, 19 per cent said that at some point they had chosen to miss a meal or eat less because of a lack of money and nearly half told us that their income did not always cover their monthly expenses. In relation to children in particular, 18 per cent of families said have had to put off buying children’s shoes and 35 per cent of tenants said that at some time they had chosen not to put the heating on because of fears over costs.
A cold, hungry child is not going to be motivated to learn, to get qualified and to break the poverty cycle.
The Government’s new Child Poverty (Scotland) Act is at last recognition that this is a real issue impacting our communities.
They have also identified local stakeholders, like housing associations, as being in a crucial position to help do something about it.
By helping to keep rents low and providing energy-efficient homes we can take two real steps to put money back in people’s pockets. We can advise on money matters so tenants are making the most of the money they have and help them get what they are entitled to.
We can also improve people’s life chances by providing help, advice and skills training to get young people get into work. The role of a housing association is now about far more than simply putting a secure roof over someone’s head.
The results of this survey show that in modern Scotland poverty, real poverty, is still a reality for too many people. It should not be acceptable in this country in the 21st century.
Yes, local and national government, social landlords, health, third sector, and communities themselves, are all working together to tackle it but its causes are complex.
We now have a real picture of what it looks like in our community and are pledged to do what we can, but time is running out for many people.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel