Disabled election candidates: The Green Party’s Sara Nicola Ruth

The accessible housing crisis is a key issue for Green candidate Sara Nicola Ruth* in the general election campaign, particularly as she is herself “stuck in an inaccessible home”.

Her experience with inaccessible housing convinced her that she needed to use the campaign – she is standing in Colchester, Essex – to speak out about how disabled people are often trapped in their own homes.

In her case, when she had to move home, she had little choice about where she would move.

She is now living on a narrow street that has no parking restrictions, with cars – including huge SUVs** – parked on both pavements.

She said: “Sometimes they are parked right in front of the door so there’s no way for me to leave the house with my walking frame, and when I can get out of the door, I have to walk down the middle of the street.

“Life shouldn’t be like this.”

Asked to choose three policies that would improve life for disabled people in the UK, she picks three housing policies from the Disabled People’s Manifesto, drawn up by DPO Forum England.

She would like to see a requirement for all new homes to be accessible, and for 10 per cent of them to be suitable for wheelchair-users; enforceable standards to ensure good quality, well-insulated housing in the private and social rented sectors; and new rent caps, so no-one pays more than one third of their income on rent.

She characterises the current Conservative government’s record on disability as “persecution, stigmatisation, and scapegoating”.

She said: “I hear horror stories daily about how people in need are being denied essential benefits and the terrible consequences of this.

“Austerity policies are a political choice and the impacts would have been well known in advance.

“It’s difficult to conceptualise the scale of the cruelty with which the government has treated disabled people.”

She added: “I was a single mother in the early 1990s at a time when the Tory government was heavily scapegoating single mothers.

“I would say the current stigmatising of disabled people feels very similar.”

She says the Green Party is the only party that prioritises climate justice and social justice and sees them as “going hand-in-hand” and is “genuinely concerned about inclusivity and advocating for marginalised people”.

She said: “I definitely think the Green Party are most open to advocating for disability rights of all the parties as they include strategies to promote quality of life and wellness for everyone in their policies and acknowledge that disabled people are particularly vulnerable.

“If elected I will fight for a properly-funded NHS and social care sector, rent controls and accessible social housing, and an end to no-fault evictions.

“I will speak for disabled people and advocate for their rights, and for the rights of all marginalised people within the bigger picture of the multiple crises we face as a society.”

Asked why, as a disabled person, she wanted to stand at the election, she said: “For me the personal is political.

“My elderly mother can’t get a GP appointment, my grown-up daughters are unable to buy homes and their rents are sky-high, and I am a disabled person stuck in an inaccessible home.

“I’m also a full-time student living on a low income and struggling with the cost of living.

“And I know that nothing will improve for me unless it improves for everyone.

“The cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis and the NHS are my priorities, and within this the terrible impacts of austerity policies upon disabled people and the constant marginalisation of disabled voices.”

Ruth (pictured) is a poet and visual artist and began studying for a BA after being made redundant. After graduating last year, she began studying for an MA in environment, society and culture at the University of Essex.

For many years, she worked from home because of her impairment, but it became increasingly difficult to find work.

Before the pandemic, she had to hide the extent of her mobility impairment from prospective employers because she knew she would not otherwise be taken on.

The impairment means she cannot drive, so she was restricted to administrative positions where she could commute by bus and a short walk.

But she was made redundant from her last job in 2020 due to post-Covid fatigue, which had made it difficult to leave the house on her own, “particularly as I can’t use a wheelchair because my home is completely inaccessible”.

*This is part of a pre-election series of articles that will give some of the disabled people standing as candidates at the general election a chance to describe why they wanted to stand, how they became politicised, and the kind of barriers they have faced as disabled people. The aim is to raise the profile of some of the disabled people seeking elected office. DNS will analyse party manifesto commitments separately

**Sports utility vehicles

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