Issue details

There are complex relationships between housing and mental health with the links between the two well-documented. Research has identified that approximately 1/3rd of social housing tenants have a mental health problem and ‘Mind’ also claim that one in three social housing tenants are unhappy with the place they live, exacerbating their mental health difficulties. Compared with the general population, people with mental health conditions are one and a half times more likely to live in rented housing, with greater uncertainty about how long they can remain in their current home.
Mental ill health is frequently cited as a reason for tenancy breakdown and housing problems are often given as a reason for a person being admitted, or readmitted, to inpatient care. During recent Doncaster locality workshops, mental health has been highlighted as a priority area within each locality.
According to the latest data, over 12,600 St Leger Homes tenants completed a Customer Profiling Questionnaire (CPO). Of these, over 1,880 (14%) of tenants indicated that they suffered from mental health issues. Extrapolating this across all tenancies, this could mean at least 3,000 tenants with poor mental health. For Doncaster borough, this would equate to almost 55,000 people living in the borough having experienced some form of mental health condition.