Residents' community-led action research project shows connection between housing and human rights
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 12th February 2025
A new report written by a group of Edinburgh residents has highlighted the extent of issues with their homes, and the impact the issues have had on their human rights.
As part of community-led action research project, the Cables Wind House Residents Group spent two years surveying residents and uncovering issues around dampness and mould, pests, anti-social behaviour, broken lifts, delayed repairs, and poor communication.
Crucial to the findings was the importance of human rights, and the group has made a series of suggested actions that landlord City of Edinburgh Council should make in order to see their legal rights upheld.
"As we increased our knowledge and collated the survey responses," the group writes, "we understood that our human rights, as set out in domestic law and international treaties, were being breached by duty bearers.
Community-led action research is a process where the community decides on an issue to be researched, designs and carries out the research, and makes use of the results. It is an important way for communities to gather evidence on, increase their understanding of and take action on the issues that are important to them.
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