Sarah Gomes Harris co-founder of Hastings Rental Health, considers the very real consequences of living in a home that’s never allowed to be a home.
“The sky hangs over us dark and low, like a dirty screen, on which the clouds are fighting fierce battles. That’s what our houses are for – to protect us from the sky, otherwise it would pervade the very inside of our bodies, where, like a little ball of glass, our Soul is sitting.” Olga Tokarczuk.
There’s a lot of talk of community here in Hastings. Almost daily you hear it drip from mouths giddy with appreciation of those around them. But who is this community? Who makes up the fabric of the town? And who is struggling to hold on?
The average renter finds that for one reason or another, they are unable to stay in their home for more than three years. And in recent years, it’s much more common that people are being moved on by their landlords each year, sometimes every six months.
What does this do for that person’s feeling of community? Their sense of having people they can rely on for support – a deep and mutual trust – to feel rooted or settled. What does it do to someone if you never get to experience this with your neighbours and community?
According to the Anxiety Nation report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, private renters are much more likely to suffer symptoms of anxiety including: sleepless nights, lacking energy, feeling depressed, under strain, and worthless. This correlates with what we have heard over the last three years while volunteering in Hastings Rental Health’s campaign group. It’s worryingly common now for renters to talk about taking medication for anxiety over eviction, problems with the property their landlords refuse to fix, or working all hours to cover so-called ‘market rate’ rent.
We’ve had people come to us at the start of an eviction process, perfectly rational and with a pragmatic can-do spirit, and seen their mental health completely dive over the following months. These are the people in our community.
In the last couple of days I’ve had two unprompted conversations with taxi drivers about landlords. One of them, his wage – about the average local wage, not Work From Home London wage average – is £1500pm. He pays £900-1000pm rent for a two bed flat, then he has his bills and car running costs. This leaves him with hardly any money for food, or for a life. Forget your after work drinks, eating out, holidays, gym membership, he regularly cannot afford FOOD.
We’re seeing record numbers of kids in Temporary Accommodation. 139,000 across the UK, another record high which is 14% up on last year. One fifth of parents report their children are often unhappy or depressed, unsettled, and struggle to make friends due to the upheaval.
Meanwhile people beginning or developing relationships struggle to leave toxic situations because they cannot afford to – their partner might be physically or psychologically abusive, but people are forced to decide between that and homelessness.
A recent report by Shelter shows that marginalised communities are far more likely to be blocked from renting. If you’re BPOC, LGBTQ+, a single parent, or disabled, you face far more barriers to finding a home. The sheer tone of the skin that wraps your body, your sexual preferences, your physical circumstances – basic characteristics that should not make it unaccountably harder to live.
The refugees who have been housed in sub-standard accommodation in the hotel here are about to become homeless as the hotel closes. Most of these men have had their leave to remain granted, but are not being given their individual homelessness plan by the Local Authority, nor offered interpreters to help explain their rights – according to Refugee Buddy Project.
Then there’s the stress study done by Amy Clare which measures CRP levels – a type of protein used to identify cancer and other illnesses in our blood. She found private renters have higher CRP levels than homeowners or social tenants, clearly indicating the link between renting and sickness and the stress short term housing has on us.
In 1991 67% of 25-34yr olds were homeowners. By 2017 that had fallen to 35% and it’s probably reduced a great deal since then. What does this unjustified abuse do to 70% of a generation… a community… a country? “That is a civilisation shift.” says Aaron Bastani of Novara Media. [This Novara interview on housing is worth a watch]
Rent increases, mould, the aggressive ‘competitive’ rental market (why is the term “market” even acceptable in the same instance as a “home”) the constant moving, the haughty paternalism of landlord culture. The perpetual infantilisation of renters, who can never decorate their homes and make a place feel their own, despite all the hours work they pour into paying for it.
This is contributing to a culture of breathlessness, one both landlords and homeowners simply don’t get to experience or understand. The level of ignorance is staggering given just how many renters are struggling around Hastings and the country.
We need all of you to help solve this. To advocate for and support us renters, because it’s brutal out there and it will only get worse. If for no other reason, help out of self interest. This issue ultimately has a negative impact on everyone. If renters can’t contribute to an economy, businesses suffer, mortgages can’t be met, homeowners are stuck renting again. And guess who buys up their homes? Investors, asset managers, opportunistic property developers. Gary Stevens, the council estate boy who went on to become a city trader recently warned: “They’re coming for your mum’s house. They will take everything.”
So we must shift away from a culture of homes for profit, and think about community shares – buying back buildings and land and keeping it community owned and managed in perpetuity.
Hastings Rental Health may not have beat the property developers to Gensing Manor, but we are searching for new property or land and we will need greater support when we do that. This is a hard, long game, but ultimately one that pays off. The more habitual this becomes, the better the future of housing. Please support the Hastings Housing Alliance and all the other groups under this umbrella trying to create a culture of affordable housing for all community members in Hastings. And lastly, join community campaign group Acorn and fight against evictions. Really bloody support the Hastings community so we all thrive, whether we grew up here and moved to London and came back, grew up in Brixton and got squeezed out, came from Afghanistan or Sudan or Syria. We all deserve to thrive.