Housing injustice: realism, hope and calls to action

On a warm Thursday afternoon in June, individuals were convening at the Footwork Factory in Farringdon - their united cause? Housing injustice.

Attendees, deep in dicsussion

In June, as part of the London Festival of Architecture and in collaboration with ArctitectsAware! and Crisis Venture Studios, Footwork hosted one of their much loved ‘Footworking’ sessions. A play on a classic networking evening, attendees were invited to converse in groups, assigned on arrival to encourage the meeting of unlikely allies.

The evening was framed with five provocative speeches by individuals working, living and breathing to democratise access to housing. Conversations ranged from critical issues in health, housing, and societal change within the public and private rented sector.

Claude Hendrickson MBE, sharing his provocation with the room

Provocations were kicked off by Claude Hendrickson MBE, a Leeds-based, accredited Community Led Homes advisor and community power campaigner.

Grounding his provocation in the need for communities to be involved in solving their problems, and not waiting for the system to solve their problems for them.

Claude appealed to the policy-makers in the room, with a request to ring fence 5 per cent of the annual housing budget for community led housing projects. Further appealing to the government with a call for social housing to be part of the infrastructure budget of the country, as a component of the fabric of society.

To conclude, Claude left the room with a poignant reflection on the way in which your home acts as a person’s foundation, and that everyone should be entitled to that feeling of security.

Attendees discussing the provocations

The second provocation came from Charmaine McNally, a South London, hammer-wielding, self builder. Charmaine’s story is one that speaks to the joy of the empowerment of local people.

20 years ago Charmaine was in dire need of better quality housing, living in a tower block with damp on the walls, three children all in one room. Serendipitously she picked up a leaflet with an article on self building, she rang the number and was invited down to the Hither Green school for their inaugural meeting. She joined the self-build programme which included meeting with architects, securing funding and of course, building.

14 families were self building together and finished their homes within the year. The skills that both her and her children gained from their self build journey has changed their life forever. From setting up a women in construction agency to two of her children going on to have careers in construction.

The self build programme doesn’t just give people a home, it gives them opportunity.

Andrew Bailie, sharing his provocation with the room

The third provocation of the evening came from Andrew Bailie, Co-founder of Roost and urban Inside Housing 40 under 40.

Roost aims to provide an alternative to renting in the private sector, for those unable to afford to buy their own homes. Roost helps tenants to set up their own co-operatives, and has an ambition to build 1 million co-op homes.

Roost’s mission originates from the knowledge that the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is fundamentally flawed. The poorest 20 per cent of our society are now twice as likely to live in a private rental tenure as they were in the year 2000.

Co-ops aren't magic, but if something breaks you can collectively fix it, you won’t be subject to arbitrary rent hikes and don’t need to live in fear of no fault evictions. Housing co-operatives are the most promising route to a housing system that upholds people’s health and wellbeing.

The penultimate provocation came from Alexia Murphy, CEO of Depaul UK who has 30 years behind her in the homelessness sector.

Alexia shared a series of hard hitting facts to paint a picture of the scale of the homelessness problem in the UK:

136,000 young people approached their LA for accommodation help in 2023
In London, in June 2024 alone, Local Authorities spent £90 million on temporary accommodation, which will amount to 1 billion and 80 million pounds this year.
At the end of 2023, the Big Issue said there were 112,000 households in temporary accommodation including 147,000 children
In London 11,000 people sleeping rough on the streets, and 40 per cent of those came to the street from stable accommodation - could this have not been prevented?

26 per cent of households in this country are in the PRS, and so the PRS needs to be part of the solution - on the flip side, this is also the biggest single driver of homelessness in this country. Can we incentivize landlords to keep hold of their tenants?

Alexia proposes that the 80 million, of the 1 billion and 80 million is used in london this year is used on prevention programmes to slow down the wave of people moving into temporary accommodation.

“I don’t want to pour money into private landlords pockets. I would much rather have that money spent on social housing in perpetuity for people who are homeless, and need it in the future. But at this moment, in this week, in this year, (PRS) is the only gig in town to deal with scale of the growing problem we have - and we must start from where we are at.”

Attendee listening to Alexia's provocation

To close the evening’s provocations, Nabil Al-Kinani shared his story of battling with gentrification. As a British-Iraqi built-environment professional and creative practitioner Nabil is the epitome of wearing two hats.

Nabil generously gave us his story of how he came to the UK as a refugee, and landed in the Chalk Hill Estate. Living near the neighbouring Wembley Park development and seeing first hand how the area was changing.

“You are faced with this beast of gentrification, that can’t be seen and can't be pinpointed.”

First hand experience of gentrification motivated Nabil to speak out and challenge the powers that be, resulting in a career in the private development sector. Nabil’s understanding of the root cause of gentrification is the commodification of the home. Recognising that the most powerful individual in the UK is the landowner. Privatise the Mandem is Nabil’s manifesto for how communities can take collective ownership of a parcel of land.

Referencing Henri Lefebvre's ‘Right to the City’, the ability for people to shape the city in accordance with their own hearts and desires, falls exclusively in the hands of landowners. Can this power land in the hands of my community?

With such a string of rousing provocations, attendees were mixed into groups to further discuss and pick apart the challenges, opportunities and ideas posed.

Asking the question, how can we innovate to address housing injustice?