letstalkabout-it

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Concept

This project aims to explore the relationship between loneliness and temporary accommodation, using an auto-ethnographic approach I have produced a series of spoken word pieces which reflect on my own lived experience in temporary accommodation.

This project is essential because it is the first step in a larger social justice project. The intention is to use this experience to develop a spoken word focused creative writing program which can be used within communities, such as Newham where the issue is most acute, as a cost effective method of combating loneliness amongst those in temporary accommodation. 

What is?

Temporary accommodation: 

Temporary accommodation is a limbo period, recently homeless households maybe places in temporary accommodation in the UK until permanent housing is found. The problems related to this system are three fold:

Duration: On average households are in temporary accommodation for 5-10 years (Rice, 2023), this uncertain timeframe impacts feelings of anxiety. It also leaves families in inadequate housing for extremely long periods of time.       

Location: 34% of households in Newham are placed outside of Newham (Newham Counsil, 2021). Relocating families from the boroughs where their support networks lie during an extremely traumatic period dramatically increases feelings of loneliness and social isolation.                                 

Quality of Housing: Temporary accommodation housing is known for its ‘Poor quality and uninhabitable conditions’ (Rice, 2023), a high percentage of the housing is classed as a “violation of their [children’s] rights”’ (Rice, 2023). In London especially Newham this issue is specifically acute: In London on average 17 in every 1000 households are placed in temporary accommodation. In Newham on average 51.4 in every 1000 households are placed in temporary accommodation. This statistic is Over 3 times the Average in London

(Newham Council,  2021)

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Literature review:

I

This section explores why I will be looking into issues surrounding temporary accommodation and loneliness in London. I will then consider the relationship between temporary accommodation and loneliness, exploring what causes loneliness and social withdrawal within this context. Finally I will display how this is not simply a housing issue but a social justice issue which effects the most vulnerable within our society. 

The importance of what a home is, is essential when considering why temporary accommodation can cause loneliness. The idea of the home in British culture is extremely important, after World War II Britain became a ‘home-centred society’ according to Mark Abrams, a journalist for The Listener in 1959 (Langhamer, 2005). Following the war the home came to represent ‘relaxation, freedom, peace and privacy’ (Langhamer, 2005, 344). For this reason the loss of ones home and the transition into Temporary Accommodation and homelessness can be seen as a traumatic event, individuals are grieving not just the loss of their home but everything their homes represented socially. Ira Cohen professor of sociology and anthropology identifies a form of deep solitude which is closely connected to the experience of temporary accommodation. Deep solitude in times of personal distress is when individuals choose to withdraw from social interactions due to experiencing a deeply traumatic event, although this form of solitude may seem to be a choice it is greatly influenced by social cues and shame. The history of this form of solitude in the West is established in folk theory of rural Greeks, who’s women when widowed would secluded themselves from social life for five years in order to absorb the grief and move past the event. In the Modern West solitude in times of personal distress has also become associated with a range of traumatic events such as receiving a bad medical diagnosis, a set back in career or the ending of an intimate relationship (Cohen, 2017, p163-164). Like the greek widows, grief is still societally expected to be a private endeavour - the pain and shame a individual cross to bear. This unspoken social expectation can cause people to socially withdraw and so increase feelings of loneliness as well as the health risks associated with it. 

Loneliness is a public health issue with ‘mortality risks comparable to well-established risk factors such as cigarette smoking and even exceeding the influence of physical activity and obesity’ (Guerst-Emerson and Jayawardhana, 2015, p1013). Fay Alberti cultural historian of gender, emotion and medicine identifies different forms of loneliness, chronic loneliness according to Alberti is a form of loneliness rooted in childhood deprivation (Alberti, 2019, p10). Chronic loneliness is particularly destructive because ‘loneliness forged in childhood and adolescence seems to set a pattern for loneliness in later life’ (Alberti, 2019, p10). This is why when considering who the creative writing course would be designed for I included those who have previously experienced temporary accommodation as well as those currently in temporary accommodation. I believe the effects of this trauma can be long lasting and, through my own lived experience, influence a form of chronic loneliness.   

The risk of health issues, chronic loneliness and trauma induced social withdrawal caused by experiencing temporary accommodation is not equally likely to occur to anyone in society. Many factors make an individual more likely to experience temporary accommodations, ‘people living in TA represent some of the capital’s most vulnerable populations […] people living in TA commonly have complex health needs’ (London Assembly Housing Committee, 2024, p14). Black individuals are 3.6 times more likely than white individuals in the UK to apply for temporary accommodation, in London black individuals are 5.2 times more likely to apply or temporary accommodation than white individuals (Bramley, 2022). These disproportional statistics show that this is not merely a housing issue but also a significant social justice concern. Individuals who are already marginalised within society are disproportionally affected by temporary accommodation, experiencing not only housing instability but also the loneliness and social isolation that often accompany it.  

II

This section will consider why I chose to approach this issue is this specific way, first I will consider the FrameWorks Institute’s Reframing Homelessness report to display the foundational aims of my method. I will then use Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner’s, Handbook of Qualitative Research Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as Subject, to explain the rational behind the auto-ethnographic approach to research. Finally I will explore the value of spoken word, its historical importance as a tool for social justice and my personal drive and experience with the practise. 

The FrameWorks Institute’s Reframing Homelessness in the United Kingdom report which aims to reimagine how we tackle homelessness in the UK emphasises the need for a shift from a charity narrative to a common experience meta-frame when communicating to the public in order to be more productive (Volmert et al, 2018, p3) . This asks us to focus three key points when communicating homeless narratives to the public: firstly, it asks us to consider on people’s fundamental commonality, this essential means the things we call have in common, our shared humanness. Secondly, their researched showed that displaying the true lived experience of people who have been or are homeless is significantly more effective because it steps away from playing into the popular assumption that homeless only means sleeping rough - by displaying other forms of homelessness such as temporary accommodation we can tackle issues that are more hidden. Finally the report suggests emphasising the role of systems which cause homelessness and the systems which can be used or implemented to find solutions, this encourages people understand the sheer range of issues that can cause homelessness in all it’s forms and encourage them to support policies which combat it.

To effectively approach this issue I will use an auto-ethnographic approach while developing spoken word pieces and use this to influence the construction of a creative writing course. Auto-ethnography is a form of qualitative research which I believe is rooted in social justice because it aims to holistically capture a persons reality and consciously communicate it to the reader, ‘showing characters embedded in the complexities of lived moments of struggle, resisting intrusions of chaos, disconnection, fragmentation, marginalisation and incoherence, trying to preserve or restore the continuity of life’s unity’ (Ellis and Brochner, 2005, p744). In this way I aim to show the true lived experience of a person experiencing temporary accommodation. Furthermore, this approach is essential when considering the most effective way to reduce loneliness in those who experience temporary accommodation because there is no one truth. The research must consciously acknowledge its own subjectivity because subjective experience is the the truth we are trying to locate. 

Ellis in her Introduction to Autoethnography recounts a lecture by Dr Art Bochner entitled Why Personal Narratives Matter which encapsulates exactly the approach I have taken and why it is essential:

‘The authors privilege stories over analysis, allowing and encouraging alternative readings and multiple interpretations. They ask the readers to feel the truth in their stories and so become coparticipants, engaging the story line morally, emotionally, aesthetically and intellectually’ (Ellis and Brochner, 2005, p745) 

This is a way to effectively raise awareness of an issue through evocative narratives, the audience are no longer passive but active participants. This method lends itself well to spoken word specifically. Spoken word in some cases known as slam poetry is rooted in social justice activism. In the 2000 Paris review Harold Bloom calls spoken word the ‘death of art’ (Johnson, 2017) this is because as an art form it refuses to abide by the white patriarchal  structures of ‘literary writing’. Instead it is focused on social activism ‘It is often orientated toward individual or local-level change, such as healing oneself from past traumas, radically loving oneself, critically educating teen poets through mentorship, or cultivating sustainable and healthy community interactions’. There is a belief that this work has the potential to make micro-level changes, touching people in their softest sentimentalities through the communion of people and so form the foundation for a more equitable empathetic world.

Spoken word is written with the intention to be communally experienced. It is a form rooted in transformative justice, a form of justice with a specific ‘focus on structural forms of injustice’ (Walkington, 2020, 653). Transformative justice acknowledges the systematic issues and so seeks to give communities the tools to seek power through community based justice and healing. By using both auto-ethnography and spoken word this project can successfully approach the issue of homelessness through the common experience metaframe.

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Documentation - Journaling

Three or four times a week I take ten to twenty minutes to engage in journaling. This approach is inspired by Patricia Ann Sealy’s article Autoethnography: Reflective journaling and meditation to cope with life threatening Breast Cancer (2012). In this article she recounts her own experience attempting to process a life threatening illness ‘Reflective journaling can assist people to iden- tify cognitive patterns in their responses’ .

A significant factor in developing spoken word pieces is understanding and identifying cognitive patterns in my own thoughts. This allows me to find moments in the present which are scarred by past trauma. Over the process of working on this project I found that when writing spoken word pieces words and images which were written while journaling would be unintentionally reflected in the spoken word pieces.

As you can see from these extracts there is a clear reflection between the two pieces written weeks apart. The idea of six people together was taking a large amount of cognitive space in my mind. Through journaling I as able to identify this mental fixation and articulate it in a spoken word piece.

In this piece you can hear how the journaling activity became a cathartic spoken word piece. Sealy’s article does explicitly acknowledge that the cognitive awareness that journaling produces ‘alone may not be sufficient, however, to facilitate a reduction in emotional pain’ (Sealy, 2012, p41). This however, supports my project as it shows that alone through creative writing cannot reduce feelings of loneliness; verbal articulation through spoken word is a useful tool achieve this goal.

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Documentation: Audio Journaling

At the conception of this project I knew that my greatest challenge would be systematically recording my thought process while developing spoken word pieces. This is an essential element of the project as the goal is to produce a creative writing spoken word course which can be used be others. In order to overcome this challenge I decided to record my thought process through audio recordings. This not only allowed me to effectively document my method but also assess how speaking aloud affected my feelings of loneliness even without an audience present. 

My method for this exercise: once a week taking a piece of theoretical literature and letting it guide my spoken thoughts in connection to my lived experience of temporary accommodation. Below is an audio recordings displaying this: 

‘Narrative inquiry would be stories that create the reality, showing characters embedded in the complexities of lived moments of struggle, resisting intrusions of chaos, disconnection, fragmentation, marginalisation and incoherence, trying to preserve or restore the continuity and coherence of life’s unity in the face of unexpected blows of fate that call one’s meanings and values into question.’ 

(Ellis, 2005)

I believe this method was particularly useful, in the majority of these recordings I recount feeling more relieved than I felt before the exercise. This is a key motivation when choosing to use spoken word specifically for this project, the practise of speaking aloud has a significantly different effect than journaling through writing. I believe this mirrors in the practise of written creative writing versus spoken word. There is a feeling of catharsis which arrives when articulating thoughts aloud. 

Indeed spoken word has been used as a form of therapy, Levy writes about the use of Hip Hop Spoken Word Therapy (HHSWT) as a particularly useful form of therapy especially when targeting marginalised groups (Levy, 2019). Even in a less creative arts context talking therapy CBT has been used as the primary form of mental health intervention in UK by the NHS, producing ‘impressive recovery rates’ (NHS England, 2016). 

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Conclusion and Next steps

Considering my personal methodology of spoken word conception has been extremely beneficial to laying the foundations for my end end goal. Breaking down the writing process through written and audio journaling allowed be to understand how separately both exercises produce different outcomes and feelings.

Written journaling allowed me to identify cognitive patterns which could easily be utilised in my spoken word pieces, using recurring themes and images not only create effective spoke word pieces but also allow me to emotionally recognise recurring emotional patterns. In contract audio journaling produced a more therapeutic effect, using relevant literature prompts allowed my thoughts to stay on topic while also roaming freely through time making new cognitive connections between past and present behaviours. Notably the audio journaling exercise also delivered an emotionally cathartic response which in my experience felt similar to the feeling following talk therapy. This supports my project’s theory that through articulating oneself through a spoken medium can relieve feelings of loneliness.

The next steps of this project would be to perform my developed collection of spoken word pieces to an audience so that I can assess how the act of performance effects feelings of loneliness. This is a low risk high reward project all that is needed for performance is a room and an audience. The audience is the university’s own local community, Newham has the highest numbers of individuals in temporary accommodation in the whole of the UK. For this reason the target audience is the local community of Newham. It is those who have experienced temporary accommodation themselves, it is their neighbours and their council men. The whole performance should be filmed so that I can collect the audience response following the performance. 

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Bibliography

Alberti, F (2019) A Biography of Loneliness, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Bramley, G, Fitzpatrick, S, McIntyre, J and Johnson,S (2022) Homelessness amongst Black and minored ethnicommunities in the UK. Edinburgh: Heriot-Watt University. 

Cohen, I, (2017) Three Types of Deep Solitude: Religious Quests, Aesthetic Retreats, and Withdrawls due to Personal Distress in Cultures of Solitude. US: Deutschmark Nationalbibliothek.

Ellis, C, Brochner, A (2005) The Handbook of Qualitative Research Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject. London: Sage Publishing.

Guerst-Emerson, K, Jayawardhana, J (2015) ‘Loneliness as a Public Health Issue: The Impact go Loneliness on health Care Utilisation Among Older Adults’ , American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 105 (5) 1013-1019.

Johnson, Javon (2017) Killing Poetry : Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities, Rutgers University Press.

London Assembly (2024), London’s Temporary Accommodation Emergency. 

Langhamer, C (2005) ‘Domestic Dreamworlds’, Journal of contemporary History, Volume. 40 (2) 341-362.

Newham Council (2021), ‘Homelessness review 2021’. 

NHS England (2016), ‘NHS England investment in mental health 2015/16’.

Rice, Becky (2023) ‘The experiences of families living in temporary accommodation in Westminster’, Cardinal Hume Centre.

Sealy, P.A. (2012) ‘Autoethnography: Reflective Journaling and Meditation to Cope With Life-Threatening Breast Cancer’, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 16(1), pp. 38–41. doi:10.1188/12.CJON.38-41.

Volmert,  A, et al (2018) Reframing Homelessness in the United Kingdom. UK: FrameWorks Institute. 

Walkington, L (2021) ‘Speak About It, Be Spoken About It: Spoken-Word Poetry Communities and Transformative Social Justice’, Critical Criminology , Vol 29 (3) 649-666.