For Scottish Housing Day, The Life I Want have written a blog to highlight its forthcoming work with housing associations to support inclusion and community participation of tenants with learning disabilities. The Life I Want is a member of SCLD’s Housing and Independent Living Group which is working to advocate for the right to adequate housing and independent living in the community for people with learning disabilities.
What are people with a learning disability looking for in a neighbour?
The short answer is: pretty much the same as everyone else.
The Life I Want is preparing for meetings with a group of Housing Associations in Glasgow. These Associations want to be more aware and inclusive of the needs of potential and current tenants with a learning disability or some form of neurodivergence. At one of our recent Open Zoom meetings, we asked members and partner organisations what makes a good neighbour. Their responses were thoughtful and familiar.
What people said
- Showing respect
- Being respected and not treated like outsiders
- People being understanding
- Awareness of learning disabilities and autism
- Trust
- Friendships and having friends
- Treating others the way you want to be treated
- Having caring, genuinely kind neighbours
- Having someone friendly to talk to
These were some of the key elements of what people thought made a good neighbour – whether you have a learning disability or not. Talking further about trust and friendliness, though, brought up some harder questions.
Barriers and boundaries
Why are there barriers in society that stop people from simply saying hello to someone with a learning disability?
The poet Robert Frost’s Mending Wall (1914) comes to mind. In it, the neighbour repeats the phrase: “Good fences make good neighbours.” He believes that boundaries like fences help avoid conflict. Frost questions this idea, noticing there are no animals to keep in or out, and nature itself keeps breaking down the wall. He wonders whether walls are needed at all, or if they only keep people apart.
We often value boundaries. They mark what is ours and what is someone else’s. Knowing the lines that separate and enclose can make us feel safe. But do these invisible fences create barriers that make it harder to approach people, especially if we see them as “different”? That wariness of the unknown can stop friendships before they start.
Building inclusion
In our upcoming meetings with Housing Associations, one topic that excited them was how to support tenants without learning disabilities to engage more easily with those who do. Members with lived experience will be part of our conversations with the Associations. Together, we will plan activities and interventions that encourage neighbours to get to know each other.
This shared process of planning and acting should give us new ideas for how to build trust and friendliness among tenants. By working with people who have a learning disability at the heart of the conversation, we hope to show what good neighbours really look like and learn from the joint planning experience too.
Watch this space!