Meet Elaine, a woman whose family has been affected by the lack of affordable housing - particularly social housing. 

Elaine is a mother and grandmother from Bexley, London. She works hard as a midwife and really enjoys it. However, Elaine is one of the many women in the UK affected by the housing crisis. There is a chronic housing shortage in the UK and though the government is prioritising building so-called ‘affordable’ housing, it is not affordable for most families. In her video, Elaine highlights that there is an increasing demand for social housing but the government has failed to supply social housing to the most in need families in the UK

‘Affordable housing; affordable for who? Not for my family, never for my family. The right to buy was wrong because the people that were living in the houses didn’t want to buy in the first place. They were given the opportunity and they grabbed it with both hands and you can’t blame them for that. In Beckley where I live there are 700 people on the waiting list, 700 people times that by 32 boroughs is 220,000 people desperately wanting a home. The bedroom tax hasn’t done anything expect make poor people miss out. Most people blame the immigration coming in taking all the houses, no they are not. Most of the immigrants coming in are in private housing not in social housing.’

Find out more about the Women Speak Out project and learn about women who've experienced inequality like this:

Women Speak Out

Women Speak Out: Economy