Front-facing housing management: Defending community cohesion against unrest

In modern housing management, professionals navigate an increasingly complex landscape where demographic shifts, structural historical divisions and contemporary social media narratives intersect. This reality has been brought into sharp, immediate focus by recent violent anti-immigrant unrest in Northern Ireland coupled with high-profile political proposals to ban non-UK nationals from social housing. 

Navigating and addressing these modern challenges isn’t easy. Recently the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) hosted a dedicated webinar exploring how housing providers can proactively foster community cohesion, promote social integration and counter rising intolerance, sharing good practice from across the UK.

Chaired by Justin Cartwright, national director of CIH Northern Ireland and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) lead for CIH, the discussion brought together distinct but deeply complementary perspectives on community integration. As a post-conflict society where, residential areas have historically been segregated along religious and ethnic lines, Northern Ireland provides a backdrop for exploring community stabilisation. 

To drive sector-wide progress, CIH has introduced an Equality in Housing campaign pledge alongside an accessible housing rights platform tailored for both advisors and migrants across the UK.

The webinar highlighted actionable strategies from two sector leaders: Paul Hassan, partnership manager at ACH – a grassroots refugee integration specialist operating across the West of England and the West Midlands – and John Kane, head of communities at the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which directly manages approximately 84,000 public sector homes.

The power of co-production and lived experience

A core takeaway from the discussion is that sustainable community integration cannot be forced from the top down – it must be co-produced with the communities it aims to serve.

The refugee-led model

Paul detailed the operational philosophy of ACH, an organisation where half of the 130-person staff possess lived experience as refugees or vulnerable migrants, and the chief executive is himself a former refugee from Somalia. ACH supports roughly 1,500 people annually, focussed on transitioning people smoothly out of the asylum system into secure and stable tenancies.

By ensuring that services are designed and led by people who understand the displacement journey firsthand, ACH shifts the narrative surrounding migrants from passive beneficiaries to active economic and civic contributors. This approach yields visible civic milestones, such as a former ACH beneficiary recently being appointed as the first Somali Lord Mayor of Bristol.

Building bridges through non-transactional alliances

Fostering cohesion also requires deeply intentional engagement with existing majority host communities, particularly those experiencing their own socio-economic hardships. Paul noted that online algorithms and political rhetoric frequently drive local polarisation, leaving neighbourhoods vulnerable to disinformation.

To counter this, ACH adopts a ‘non-transactional’ approach to community relations. Rather than only advocating for new arrivals, ACH actively aligns with the broader goals of host neighbourhoods. For instance, the organisation partnered with a predominantly white, working-class community in Bristol to support their local campaign to save a vital youth centre. By standing together on shared, non-housing issues, they built mutual trust and dismantled institutional barriers.

Similarly, recreational initiatives – such as organising a football match between a refugee team and local residents, followed by shared community meals – serve as simple, low-cost avenues to humanise neighbours and look past general labels.

Structural mechanisms: Policy, accountability and myth-busting

While grassroots trust-building is essential, it must be reinforced by robust institutional frameworks, clear policy metrics and proactive educational strategies.

The five pillars of institutional cohesion

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive uses a formal community cohesion strategy structured around five key thematic areas, directly linked to its grant-funding allocations. If a local community group puts forward a project that aligns with these strategic themes, NIHE provides direct financial support. The five themes are residential segregation/integration; race relations; communities in transition; interface areas; and flags, emblems and symbols.

A central pillar of this work is the “Housing for All” programme, which promotes shared, mixed housing schemes that are safe and practical. For every new shared housing development, an advisory group is established, comprising housing associations, the NIHE and local partners. This group designs and rolls out tailored good relations plans encompassing a five-mile radius of the site, ensuring the surrounding community is fully integrated into the transition.

Protecting tenants and tackling misinformation

Operational housing management must also feature direct mechanisms to protect vulnerable residents and counter false community narratives. John highlighted two highly practical tools deployed by the Housing Executive:

• The HIPA scheme (hate incident practical action): Run in partnership with the Department of Justice and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), this initiative provides immediate, practical physical security modifications and support to any tenant who has fallen victim to a hate crime
• The ‘migrant housing myths’ strategy: To dismantle local tensions stemming from inaccurate assumptions regarding social housing allocations, NIHE worked directly with its Central Housing Forum group of residents to produce a comprehensive myth-busting guide. By providing transparent, fact-based information regarding how housing points and allocations actually operate, the organisation aims to actively deprive divisive elements of traction. CIH has similarly aimed to disentangle myths on migration and housing.

The Housing Executive also prioritises cultural awareness training for its front-facing staff to help them deliver culturally sensitive services and better understand the unique barriers faced by diverse communities.

Transforming the built environment and looking ahead

Community cohesion is visibly reflected in the physical infrastructure of our neighbourhoods. In Northern Ireland, this frequently involves addressing highly sensitive, divisive markers in public spaces.

Reimaging visual landscapes

John discussed the Housing Executive's ongoing collaboration with local community groups to deliver ‘positive expressions of culture’ projects. Last year alone, the scheme supported 143 distinct initiatives focussed on re-imaging sectarian or paramilitary murals, transforming them into inclusive, welcoming expressions of local heritage. Both Justin and John emphasised that managing flags and cultural emblems in public estates is a gradual journey of continuous dialogue and not a swift, top-down enforcement mechanism.

Leveraging technology for inclusion

Looking toward future innovations, ACH is currently exploring pioneering partnerships with institutions like the Bristol Digital Futures Institute at the University of Bristol. This research investigates how advanced digital tools can be used practically to help migrants with skills verification, connect them directly to employment systems, and facilitate language learning experiences that bridge gaps between new arrivals and majority host communities.

Conclusion: A long-haul commitment

The overriding consensus from the webinar is that building community cohesion is a long-term endeavour that requires thick skin, consistency and a refusal to become discouraged by local setbacks.

For housing professionals looking to duplicate these successes, the practical blueprint involves:

1. Providing seed funding to allow new and existing community groups to take ownership of their own cross-cultural welcoming initiatives
2. Identifying local advocates – the trusted neighbourhood connectors who can open doors, facilitate dialogue and bring marginalised or sceptical factions along
3. Maintaining institutional transparency regarding housing policies and allocation criteria to address misinformation before it can take root.

Ultimately, community cohesion succeeds when housing providers look past individual tenancies and commit to the ongoing, relational work of bringing diverse communities together.