An Individual Case
The JEP recently reported on a speech by Jersey hildren’s Commissioner, Deborah McMillan who “told those in the audience about the very great work being done in Jersey schools, but also about those cases of hidden family poverty which had shocked her most, including the child who had been brought up using a bucket as a toilet, as the family lived in shared accommodation.”
Often we hear the mantra “we can’t comment on individual cases”.
It is rather a welcome surprise when someone official does!
I imagine as a matter of convenience, the parents taught their child to use a bucket as a toilet, and while that is one singular case, what it can do is open the lid of shared accommodation in Jersey.
Presumably by "shared accommodation", the JEP means accommodation in which families have to share a single toilet area. I do know there were flats in town converted from old town houses with shared bathrooms / toilets, and probably could not easily be plumbed as en suite. There are certainly a number of bedsits in Jersey which fall into that category. The 2001 census, which was the last one it appears that detailed matters noted that:
“ Of the 35,562 private households enumerated, 97% had their own cooking facilities, bathroom (or shower) and toilet. The remaining 3% (constituting 1,063 households) shared one or more of these amenities with at least one other household; approximately 80% of these households were not residentially qualified. 643 households had their own cooking facilities but neither their own bathroom nor toilet. 222 households had shared cooking facilities; of these, 85 also shared both bathroom and toilet facilities.”
The 2011 census doesn’t seem to report on these at all. It does tell us however that
“One in twenty (5%) of all occupied dwellings could be classed as ‘overcrowded’, that is, they had fewer bedrooms than the number required by the ‘Bedroom Standard’ (a measure of over-crowding). This measure of overcrowding rose to 15% in non-qualified accommodation”
In 2015, it was noted by the Housing Minister that “there remains around 20% of people whose lodging accommodation is not self-contained (i.e. they share amenities with other households)”
It was also stated that:
“The Ministers propose that any unit of accommodation that forms the principle residence of 3 or more unrelated households, and hence where they share amenities such as a kitchen, toilet and washroom, will be classified as ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (HMOs) and subject to a compulsory licensing scheme under the Draft Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Jersey) Law 201-. A compulsory licensing scheme will apply irrespective of whether the property is in the ‘qualified’ or ‘nonqualified’ housing sectors. Put simply, any property which meets the definition will be regulated.”
The Draft Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Jersey) Law 201- was badly drawn up, and contained a whole raft of measured which had little to do with health and safety, and was withdrawn, and presented in modified form by the environment Minister Steve Luce in 2017. It was passed.
It improves matters with inspections of slum property, and enforcement of improvements, but does not really tackle the problem of families with young children in rental accommodation with shared toilet facilities, as these are not in themselves a health or safety issue.
The technical term is Houses in Multiple Occupation, and if we look at the UK, we find different categories. We just don’t seem to have a handle on this from current census reports locally. Apart from communal dwellings, we have these:
1. Bedsits are units of accommodation, where there is some exclusive occupation (usually bedroom/living room) and some sharing of amenities (bathroom and/or toilet or kitchen). Each occupant lives otherwise independently of others.
2. Houses occupied on a shared basis where each individual or household will normally have their own bedroom or bed/living room, although in some circumstances this may be shared. There will be general sharing of the bathroom, W.C. and kitchen.
3. Houses let in lodgings, i.e. a resident owner/occupier, catering for lodgers on a small scale but not living as part of the main household. Typified by a family or household who might take in a small number of individuals living away from their primary place of residence.
What we don’t know is the ages of children living in houses occupied on a shared basis, as compared with the other categories, and the number of units of accommodation that this describes. We need figures to get a handle on this, and only then can we see if the child trained to use a bucket is simply the tip of a slum iceberg.
The figures are probably "out there" in the raw data but they don't appear in the main reports.
The JEP recently reported on a speech by Jersey hildren’s Commissioner, Deborah McMillan who “told those in the audience about the very great work being done in Jersey schools, but also about those cases of hidden family poverty which had shocked her most, including the child who had been brought up using a bucket as a toilet, as the family lived in shared accommodation.”
Often we hear the mantra “we can’t comment on individual cases”.
It is rather a welcome surprise when someone official does!
I imagine as a matter of convenience, the parents taught their child to use a bucket as a toilet, and while that is one singular case, what it can do is open the lid of shared accommodation in Jersey.
Presumably by "shared accommodation", the JEP means accommodation in which families have to share a single toilet area. I do know there were flats in town converted from old town houses with shared bathrooms / toilets, and probably could not easily be plumbed as en suite. There are certainly a number of bedsits in Jersey which fall into that category. The 2001 census, which was the last one it appears that detailed matters noted that:
“ Of the 35,562 private households enumerated, 97% had their own cooking facilities, bathroom (or shower) and toilet. The remaining 3% (constituting 1,063 households) shared one or more of these amenities with at least one other household; approximately 80% of these households were not residentially qualified. 643 households had their own cooking facilities but neither their own bathroom nor toilet. 222 households had shared cooking facilities; of these, 85 also shared both bathroom and toilet facilities.”
The 2011 census doesn’t seem to report on these at all. It does tell us however that
“One in twenty (5%) of all occupied dwellings could be classed as ‘overcrowded’, that is, they had fewer bedrooms than the number required by the ‘Bedroom Standard’ (a measure of over-crowding). This measure of overcrowding rose to 15% in non-qualified accommodation”
In 2015, it was noted by the Housing Minister that “there remains around 20% of people whose lodging accommodation is not self-contained (i.e. they share amenities with other households)”
It was also stated that:
“The Ministers propose that any unit of accommodation that forms the principle residence of 3 or more unrelated households, and hence where they share amenities such as a kitchen, toilet and washroom, will be classified as ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (HMOs) and subject to a compulsory licensing scheme under the Draft Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Jersey) Law 201-. A compulsory licensing scheme will apply irrespective of whether the property is in the ‘qualified’ or ‘nonqualified’ housing sectors. Put simply, any property which meets the definition will be regulated.”
The Draft Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Jersey) Law 201- was badly drawn up, and contained a whole raft of measured which had little to do with health and safety, and was withdrawn, and presented in modified form by the environment Minister Steve Luce in 2017. It was passed.
It improves matters with inspections of slum property, and enforcement of improvements, but does not really tackle the problem of families with young children in rental accommodation with shared toilet facilities, as these are not in themselves a health or safety issue.
The technical term is Houses in Multiple Occupation, and if we look at the UK, we find different categories. We just don’t seem to have a handle on this from current census reports locally. Apart from communal dwellings, we have these:
1. Bedsits are units of accommodation, where there is some exclusive occupation (usually bedroom/living room) and some sharing of amenities (bathroom and/or toilet or kitchen). Each occupant lives otherwise independently of others.
2. Houses occupied on a shared basis where each individual or household will normally have their own bedroom or bed/living room, although in some circumstances this may be shared. There will be general sharing of the bathroom, W.C. and kitchen.
3. Houses let in lodgings, i.e. a resident owner/occupier, catering for lodgers on a small scale but not living as part of the main household. Typified by a family or household who might take in a small number of individuals living away from their primary place of residence.
What we don’t know is the ages of children living in houses occupied on a shared basis, as compared with the other categories, and the number of units of accommodation that this describes. We need figures to get a handle on this, and only then can we see if the child trained to use a bucket is simply the tip of a slum iceberg.
The figures are probably "out there" in the raw data but they don't appear in the main reports.
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1 comment:
You've assumed the housing is in town. That's a big assumption: bear in mind that there are agricultural labourers loiving in the country parishes in converted warehouses and portakabins.
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