Our film: A place to call home
Directed by Elle Dimond, produced by Amy Walpole
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How does it feel when your home – your sanctuary – becomes a source of fear and stress?
And what about if you don’t have a home at all?
With our former clients, we explored what it means to live in housing insecurity. We used their experiences to help shape our new short film, in partnership with the Media Trust and the Santander Foundation.
What is housing insecurity?
Housing insecurity occurs when people lack a safe, secure, and affordable home.
In Bristol, the rise in street homelessness is just a fraction of the broader housing crisis – other types of housing insecurity are largely hidden. They include:
- Experiencing other forms of homelessness, like living in temporary accommodations or staying with friends;
- Being threatened with homelessness, maybe because you’re facing eviction or can’t afford local rent costs;
- Living in unsafe housing e.g., due to overcrowding, domestic abuse, or disrepair.
The impact of housing insecurity
Housing insecurity can have a serious and lifelong impact on people of all ages.
Teachers see homeless children experiencing social withdrawal, behavioral issues, and daytime sleepiness.1
Unsafe housing, for example living with damp and mould, can cause serious illnesses like asthma and COPD. In some cases, like that of 2-year-old Awaab Ishak, this has been fatal.2
Without a stable home, people’s capacity to commute, maintain hygiene, and sleep is compromised, making it harder to keep a job and pushing them further into poverty.3
This is what so many people around Bristol are dealing with right now – mostly out of sight.
We made this film to shine a light on their experience.
What we’re doing about housing insecurity
At Housing Matters, we provide specialist advice, practical support, and legal advocacy to anyone in housing stress around Bristol.
Most of our time is spent helping people through very complex situations. These cases can take several months – even years – and we don’t stop until we achieve the best possible outcomes for them.
We also amplify the voices of local communities, pushing back against the policies entrenching inequality in our housing system.
Stay updated
Hear our clients’ stories and keep in the loop with our work across Bristol.
1. Ali Digbi and Emily Fu, ‘Impacts of homelessness on children: research with teachers’, 2017 <2017_12_20_Homelessness_and_School_Children.pdf (ctfassets.net)> [accessed 19/9/2024]
2. ‘What are the impacts of homelessness?’, Crisis, n.d. <What Are The Impacts of Homelessness? | Crisis UK> [accessed 19/9/2024]
3. Department of Health and Social Care, ‘Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home’, 2024 <Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)> [accessed 19/9/2024]