Exploring emotions in social housing services and policy in England

英国的社会住房在服务质量和住房质量方面受到了批评。租户的投诉一直被忽视。两岁的Awaab Ishak死于未经治疗的霉菌引起的呼吸系统疾病，这一事件引起了公众和政界对该部门、其做法和英格兰440万社会住房状况的极大关注。政府现在把注意力集中在这一领域，为社会住房监管机构（RSH）开发了新的权力，由RSH和住房申诉专员创建了全国租户小组，要求住房经理具有经认证的住房资格，并推出了一项培训计划，以帮助租户向房东投诉。缺少的是对家作为一个情感场所的理解，以及它对学术文献的贡献和该领域的重大变化。本奖学金申请中提出的原始研究将探讨以下问题：1。对于租客来说，他们的房子和房东提供的服务在情感上有什么重要意义？心理和情感洞察如何帮助房东与租户对房屋和房东服务的情感体验联系起来？如何支持租户和房东理解和处理家庭的情感意义？这项研究由ESRC持续拨款资助，涉及来自14个房东的36名租户，证明了在家庭和房东服务中探索情感见解的价值。它揭示了一些应该是简单的遭遇，如报告维修和支付租金，所造成的压力和愤怒。租户在家中与房东及其代表的互动是造成痛苦的一个特殊原因，可能对信任、心理健康和进入家中进行必要维护产生长期的负面影响。本奖学金的原始研究将探索这些以家庭为基础的遭遇中隐藏的情感方面，并为改善相互理解、信任和租户福祉提出建议。从本质上讲，这项研究是关于把心脏放回到我们对房屋和房东服务的理解中。其中一篇论文将分析情感洞察对家庭和房东服务的影响。第二篇论文将严格审查该行业转向使用基于假定人类认知能力低下的行为观念的数字技术的风险。第三篇论文将报告在继续奖助金期间发展并用于奖学金研究的讲故事方法。最后，将编写一份报告，概述租客和房东之间情感关系的方法，并总结对租客和房东在家中遭遇的原始研究结果。该奖学金旨在发展申请人论文的学术贡献，并加强对家庭的情感理解，为社会住房政策和实践提供信息。社会住房从业者重视这项研究，2022年Clarion的William Sutton Homes for All奖就证明了这一点。这构成了ESRC IAA资助的基础，该资助支付了申请人作为研究助理完成论文写作的费用。这使得103名租户、房东代表和活动家参与进来，探索贫困心理学和家庭地理的潜力，以重新构想社会住房的分配。这项研究的成功完成导致了上文所述的“在家的感觉”研究。申请人在各种活动中向129名行业从业者和租户报告了她在这一阶段的发现，包括2023年1月31日的分配经理会议，2023年3月3日与TAROE信托公司的租户研讨会和2023年3月7日的威廉·萨顿奖网络活动。

Social housing in England has come under criticism regarding the quality of services and homes. Tenants' complaints have been ignored. The death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to respiratory illness caused by untreated mould has brought significant public and political attention to the sector, its practices and the condition of the 4.4 million social homes in England. Government attention is now on the sector with new powers being developed for the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the creation of national tenant panels by the RSH and the Housing Ombudsman, the requirement for Housing Managers to have an accredited housing qualification and the roll-out of a training programme to aid tenants in complaining to landlords. What is missing is an understanding of the home as an emotional place and its contributions to academic literature and the major changes in the sector.The original research proposed in this fellowship application will explore the questions:1. What is emotionally significant for tenants about their homes and the services they receive from landlords?2. How could psychological and emotional insights help to connect landlords with tenants' emotional experiences of the home and landlord services?3. How could tenants and landlords be supported to understand and work with the emotional meaning of the home?The Feeling at Home research, funded through the ESRC continuation grant and involving 36 tenants from 14 landlords, demonstrated the value of exploring emotional insights into the home and landlord services. It revealed the stress and anger caused by what should be simple encounters such as reporting repairs and paying rent. Interactions within the tenant's home with landlords and their representatives were a particular cause of distress that could have long-lasting negative effects on trust, mental well-being and access to the home to carry out essential maintenance. The original research in this fellowship will explore the hidden emotional aspects of these home-based encounters and make recommendations for improving mutual understanding, trust, and tenant well-being. In essence, this research is about putting the heart back into our understanding of the home and landlord services.One paper will scope the impact of emotional insights into home and landlord services. The second paper will critically examine the risks of a turn in the sector to the use of digital technologies based on behavioural ideas that assume poor human cognition. A third paper will report on the storytelling methods developed during the continuation grant and used in the fellowship research. Finally, a report will be produced outlining methods for emotionally informed relationships between tenants and landlords and summarising the findings of the original research into tenant and landlord encounters in the home.This fellowship aims to develop the academic contribution of the applicant's thesis and strengthen the case for an emotional understanding of the home to inform social housing policy and practice. Social housing practitioners value the research, as evidenced by a prize from Clarion's William Sutton Homes for All award in 2022. This formed the basis of the ESRC IAA grant that paid for the applicant's role as a Research Associate as she completed her thesis write-up. This allowed for engagement with 103 tenants, landlord representatives and campaigners to explore the potential of the psychology of poverty and home geographies to reimagine the allocation of social homes. The successful completion of this research resulted in the Feeling at Home research described above. The applicant has reported her findings from this phase to 129 sector practitioners and tenants at various events, including an allocation manager conference on 31 January 2023, a tenant workshop with TAROE Trust 3 March 2023 and a William Sutton prize network event on 7 March 2023.