Making a home on moving ground: Children and their families' experiences of housing insecurity in London today

Homelessness is increasing in London and nationwide. The overheated housing market in the capital and government austerity policies that further reduce access to stable housing have put secure, affordable homes beyond the reach of many people. At this critical time, the proposed research examines the social relations of precarious spaces by considering the repercussions of housing insecurity for children and their families. It asks; (1) What are the experiences of families with children in temporary and insecure housing in London today? (2) In what ways do such experiences shape families' practices of belonging in the home, neighbourhood and wider city? This participatory ethnography with primary-school aged children and their families will use creative methods in the setting of a family art club, to gather rich, textured accounts of precarious housing pathways. Further, using archival research, it will situate these experiences within the borough's housing policies and local housing market. It will contribute valuable empirical evidence to understandings of lived experiences of austerity, and how housing insecurity shapes children and adults' imagined futures. Crucially, it foregrounds the experiences of children, who frequently have least say over where and how they are housed, in current debates on housing.