Join this session to meet researchers and discuss their work on domestic abuse, temporary accommodation and sofa-surfing, including considering the roles of stress, instability and impermanence, and policy responses. The full abstracts are below.
Presentations from these authors and a live Q&A session are available to all HSA members. Book here
1. Yoric Irving-Clarke and Kelly Henderson Domestic abuse across the (dis)united kingdom
Until the early 2000s domestic abuse policy across the UK was broadly same, increasing devolution of powers to the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly means domestic abuse policy has diverged. Following a referendum held in 1999, the Scottish Parliament was created and given powers over several policy areas including housing and limited welfare powers. The Parliament has powers to make legislation except in those areas specifically reserved to Westminster. The Welsh Assembly, established in 1999 following a referendum was only granted powers to make secondary legislation in limited, devolved areas. In 2007, the National Assembly for Wales (the legislature) and the Welsh (Assembly) Government (Executive) were separated and the Assembly given limited primary legislative powers. This paper draws upon research for our forthcoming book on the housing policy response to domestic abuse and looks at policy across housing, welfare and family law in examining the divergent responses to domestic abuse across in England, Scotland and Wales. It looks at recent legal/policy developments that improves the responses to abuse and makes significant changes to tenancy law to support people suffering abuse. It also examines the recent proposals in England to improve responses to abuse and provide housing related support to people experiencing it. It closes by looking at the ‘whole housing approach’ widely called for by the domestic abuse sector.
2. Lynne McMordie Avoidance Strategies: Stress, Appraisal and Coping in Hostel Accommodation
Living in temporary accommodation (TA) can impact negatively on social and emotional well-being, particularly where it is poor-quality, large-scale, or congregate in nature. None-the-less, the ‘avoidance’ of TA, where an individual will sleep rough or squat when a bed space is available for their use, often provokes puzzlement on the part of the public, service providers and policy makers. Homeless people who abandon or avoid TA are often viewed as holding beliefs, characteristics or traits that render them unable or unwilling to make choices which prioritise their own well-being. Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s seminal study, 'Stress, Appraisal and Coping', and qualitative testimony from those with direct experience of TA in Belfast, this paper challenges these perspectives, arguing that the avoidance of TA is better understood as a rational and reasoned response to an environment where intolerable levels of stress often pertain and individual control over stressors is extremely limited.
3. Ben Sanders ‘Permanent impermanence’: The reality of sofa surfing in Britain today
Sofa surfing despite being one of the most widely experienced forms of homelessness (Bramley 2018) is one that is often overlooked and misunderstood. New research from Crisis (2019) explores people’s recent or current experiences of sofa surfing across England Scotland and Wales. This paper, based on face-to-face interviews with 114 people, explores the duration and causes of sofa surfing with the issue of housing affordability being a key factor across each location. It proceeds to explore the consequences of sofa surfing in terms of the subjective costs it causes - anxiety, feeling like a burden, uncertainty – as well as the physical discomfort and impact it has on finding or maintaining a job. Rather than being a fortuitous stop-gap between secure housing situations the paper shows people are more likely to sleep rough before and after episodes of sofa surfing. The paper makes clear that while there is differing homelessness legislation in operation across Great Britain there remain opportunities to prevent sofa surfing in the first place.