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Housing stigma campaign group launches as membership organisation
Stop Social Housing Stigma (SSHS) has launched as a membership organisation and is actively seeking new members.
The campaign group is free to join and open to people and organisations in the social housing sector.
SSHS said members will receive quarterly bulletins about what the campaign is doing and information to help them campaign in their local areas.
It will also offer the chance for members to send in both positive stories about social housing tenants and examples of social housing stigma.
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Nic Bliss, campaign director at SSHS, said the tenant-led group wants housing staff, contractors and others to show “solidarity and support for social housing tenants by signing up as supporter members” and “landlords, contractors and other organisations to sign up corporately and to encourage tenants to join”.
“The main reason to join the campaign is so that tenants, landlords, contractors and everyone else can stand together to present a positive image of social housing and its tenants and to challenge the stigma attached to social housing,” he said.
Mr Bliss was appointed to the new role of campaign director at SSHS in March, tasked with helping the group develop its membership and profile.
Lynne Bronson, chair of SSHS, said: “Social housing stigma was the key issue raised by tenants in the post-Grenfell ministerial roadshows.
“It works in many ways and it leads to many negative consequences for existing tenants and for campaigns to build more social homes. We all need to work together to tackle it.”
In April, several senior figures from across the sector met to discuss the establishment of a new national tenants’ body.
SSHS has existed since 2017 and is run by tenants with the support of a number of housing associations from across the UK.
Those interested in becoming a member of SSHS should complete the form on its website.
