Introducing the Deeds not Words Panel
Written by the Deeds not Words Panel
Last year, Tai Pawb put out an urgent call to its members calling on all of us to commit to creating tangible changes to improve racial inequality within the Welsh housing sector.
The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on black and other minority ethnic people compounded with the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement shook the world and for the first time in a long time, we as a society started to re-evaluate our relationship with black people and other communities of colour.
The Deeds not Words pledge was an urgent call to action aimed at the Welsh housing sector, drawing attention to the wide disparities in experiences of Black and POC communities in relation to their housing needs.
As always, any call to action around race and racism is met with reluctance from some parts of society but recent events such as the despicable racism directed towards Black players following England’s loss at the Euros and the continued marginalisation of minority ethnic communities across the country, evidences exactly why we need to be proactive in creating an anti-racist Wales and why we all have a role to play in that becoming a reality.
Adequate housing is integral to our dignity, self-worth, and happiness. As social housing and support providers we understand that housing is just more than providing a roof over one’s head. It is about providing people with the foundation of what they need so they can thrive. Despite this understanding, we are still in a situation whereby Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people are more likely to have worse housing outcomes than their White-Welsh counterparts.
As a housing community, we understand the importance of having a staff force that represents the communities we serve, yet so few of our organisations are truly representative of our diverse communities. This representation becomes even smaller when we consider senior leadership roles within our sector. These outcomes do not happen in isolation and we have had this information at our disposal for a long-time. The reality is that we as a housing community have not been prioritising tackling racial inequality for some time now and we have to challenge that.
Who we are
We are a group of passionate minority ethnic housing professionals with a variety of experience in several housing related roles. Our vision is to provide support and challenge to the sector in a bid to overcome racial inequality in housing.
Our personal and professional experience means that we are acutely aware of the challenges the sector has when it comes to tackling racial inequality. Despite this, we urge you all to not lose momentum and continue in what we know will be a difficult journey.
We need to reflect, challenge and ask ourselves why some of our past initiatives haven’t worked and then apply that learning to the work we have ahead of us.
More than a year has passed since the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests across the world highlighting the systematic and racial injustices marginalised communities face.
We know that everyone is on the same journey and we urge you to not let this lose traction. As a panel, we are here to support you. Work with us, engage with us and make your commitments a reality.
Visit our page to find our more about who we are and what we want to achieve.