The Impacts of the Housing Crisis on People of Different Ethnicities

Data on the affordability of housing for different ethnic groups is released irregularly, research rarely disaggregates findings by ethnicity, and there is a widespread lack of focus on the systemic financial and wealth drivers of house price rises that explains the lack of progress in closing deep-rooted housing inequalities. [...] This is not always precise since in some statistics the data is recorded according to the ethnicity of the ‘Housing Reference Person’ responding to the surveys, which may differ from that of the whole household. [...] The housing crisis was already significantly worse for ethnic minority Londoners in 2001, and it has worsened for them more acutely over the last twenty years than their White neighbours and other ethnic minority households in other parts of the country. [...] In the rental sector, White British renters spend on average 30% of their income to live in their homes, with most other households paying considerably more than this — 72% in the case of Chinese households, 46% for Arab households and 39% for Black African Households. [...] Living conditions The greater presence of Black, Asian and ethnic minority households in the private and social rented sector leaves them more exposed to the higher levels of insecurity and lethally unsafe housing conditions that are more common in these tenure types.