Housing allocation for people with learning disabilities in England (‘The HOME Project’): The absence of knowledge equity and the impact of epistemic injustice

<ns5:p>Background Learning disabilities, also known as intellectual disabilities, is lifelong and involves a person having reduced cognitive ability and difficulties with daily activities. Few people with learning disabilities own their own home and a high proportion live in supported housing. People with learning disabilities are overrepresented in social housing. To understand the allocation of social and supported housing for people with learning disabilities in the North of England we collected regional data and considered its implications alongside epistemic injustice theory. Epistemic injustice occurs when a person’s perspective, experience, or legitimate knowledge is dismissed due to prejudice, such as inaccurate assumptions about their mental capacity, or when knowledge is made inaccessible through excessive or poorly adapted information. Methods This study was co-produced with people who have learning disabilities. A mixed methods approach included an audit of open-source online housing information published by local authorities in North East and North Cumbria (NE&NC). Multiple-stakeholder focus groups were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Results An audit of housing information from 14 Local Authority websites showed that 79% did not provide accessible or easy-read housing information for people with learning disabilities. Focus groups and interviews were carried out with multiple stakeholders (n = 39). Four themes are reported (1) Access, housing knowledge is inaccessible, withheld, or not shared; (2) Choice, is restricted and a limited group of people control choice; (3) Change, when circumstances change, this is not responded to and expected changes are not planned for; (4) Harm, people fear harm and feel institutionalised. Conclusions We found examples of system level epistemic injustices being present for people with learning disabilities within regional housing allocation in England. We recommend specific improvements in making accessible housing information available to people with learning disabilities as a minimum standard.</ns5:p>