It’s impossible to come to our day centre and not instantly notice which young people are being forced into the harm of homelessness. The majority of the young people we work with are Black, and many are first or second-generation migrants and refugees. We don’t see these young people as sources of pity, nor do we fetishise their resilience. We have spent over half a decade working with any and all young people forced into crisis and we’ve had the privilege of supporting thousands of young Black people who are defined by their ambition, talent and skills, not the worst things that they’ve survived. We believe they, like every young person in London, deserve safe housing, support and to be able to give their potential a home. We don’t tolerate racism at New Horizon Youth Centre, and we stand in solidarity everyone working towards a more equal and just society.
We know there is institutionalised racism in the housing system in the UK, and through our work we are hoping to change that. There is no way to talk about the history of housing injustice and financial inequity in London without talking about race. In particular, how Black communities have been disproportionately affected and harmed by the housing and cost of living crises.
Research from Heriot-Watt University, that we were part of, found that Black people are almost four times more likely to become homeless and six times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions. The report also proved that only 10% of Black families gained social housing through the statutory homelessness system, compared to 24% of white families and 41% of Black families leave the statutory system to unknown destinations, compared to 28% for white families. One massively troubling trend that the report found was that Black families felt forced to change their names, accents or hairstyles, as well as those of their children, to appear ‘less Black’ and therefore more likely to be housed.
Recent research from Shelter shows how deeply both unconscious bias and intentional racism is baked into our social housing system. Policies such as Right to Buy transferred public assets into intergenerational wealth, a benefit only accessible to those financially privileged enough to access it, which was overwhelmingly white families. Black people often also report being discriminated against when trying to access private rented accommodation as well as discriminatory behaviour from white people working within the housing sector and their neighbours.
The hostile environment of the past decade has led to rules that almost completely bar migrants and refugees from the remaining social housing stock. We’ve been particularly disappointed to see the hateful rhetoric being peddled by a small but very vocal portion of society drawing often overtly racist lines between who does and doesn’t deserve the safety and support of the UK. We are resolute, all migrants, asylum seekers and refugees will be safe, respected and welcome in NHYC, now and always.
In Black History Month, as well as every day in our work, we are proud to work with these young people and the progress they’ve made. To even play a small part in that journey is what’s kept us working on the frontlines of London’s housing crisis, despite the ever-escalating odds.
At New Horizon we remain proud of our roots and powerful in our vision for an anti-racist, equitable and inclusive housing system. For Black History Month 2025 we’re excited to share with you a few examples of the wealth of cultures, skills and talents from young Black people we’ve been lucky to have worked with and our staff.
Stay tuned over the coming weeks to see what we’ve been working on.
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