Project Reflection—-The change I want to see
How can dialogue event be used to help homeless people in islington raise awareness of sense of the community?
Background of homelessness issues in London:
Homelessness issue in London is critical. 1 in every 52 people in London is homeless(London.gov.com, 2021). Trustforlondon(2020) stated that the population of rough sleeper from London is in the tendency of growth in the last decade. Crisis(2019) suggested that cost of homeless estimated at £34518. And Gov.uk suggested that cost of homelessness equates to £24,000 – £30,000 per person, not far off from the average annual income.
These figures deeply intrigued me that inspired me to research the homelessness problem in actual practice. Why homelessness take place? What had done to reduce it? How can be done to help them return back to normal patterns of life? As Brown(2009) stated that a better starting point for design is to go out into the world and see the actual experiences of stakeholders as they improvise their way through their daily lives. Therefore, I starting of by acting like a homeless people: wearing old dusty clothes, bland sport shoes, wandering around on the street in Islington, sit with them for a period of time, and talk to them. So I had spend about three weeks on the streets in Islington (especially around Kingscross, where homeless people condensed), shared some time with different homeless people, and collecting my findings via audio recording, notes and taking pictures.
Immediately, I met setback: I find it hard to build connection with them. It seems that many of them fervently expect people to give cash as only form of assistance. For example, I request to help some of them. And they turn down on me, said “I don’t need food”, “I need to stay in the hostel, I need another pound” or “cash machine is over there”…. before I finish the second question, he move to others. And many of other people did. People are willing to give homeless people cash, food and a quick chat.
These situations happened many times. If I cannot give them cash for hostel as they said, they walk away.
After some reflections and readings, I had some new findings. I realised that I didn’t put in shoes of theirs enough. Norman(2004) stated that it requires careful observations of their actual environment to discover their needs. Therefore, I stop approach them, instead focus on watch their actual behavior. I found most of homeless people live with cigarette: I saw many of them have a cigarette package for storing cigarette; and they sometimes lean down to seek cigarette on the ground and bin.
I slightly change the way I approach them——by give them a cigarette directly and light them up, sitting next to them to have a deeper conversation.
This change paid off. After a cig, Most of them do start to share more of their life problems, be genuinely reflect what is going on. After conducted semi-structured interviews to 20 homeless people, a picture of their life problems start to unveil in my mind: I start to saw the dark shade laying on their faces, and an light of eagerness for a better life.
Firstly, family issues:
“violence in relationship” ——-(Albertina, age 32, be homeless for 3 years)
“I had never been married, and she put me off the street”——-(Paul, age 80, be homeless for 1 year)
“I am studying in Brunnel in Business Management, I am waiting my school’s reply….My mum want me to get married, and I don’t, and she let me out of the street.”——-(Yasmin, be homeless for 20 days)
“I have no wife, she is……NO!!”——-(Paul, be homeless for 1 year)
“I am an orphan, do you know flying saucer? That’s where I come from. In fact, I am a satellite”——(Lea, age 52, be homeless for 2 years)
“I keep myself to myself, don’t bother me…”——-(Tara, be homeless for 3 years)
“My father and mother get drunk everyday when I was a child, I was born in a wrong family you know what I mean? I live better when I was with my friends parents.”——-(Martin, age 25, be homeless for 2 years)
“Met a women. Met a women, She decided to take me on tour the day Corona virus struck which makes me lost my property, in which makes me homeless, so I fall into London into London! Trying into London isn’t it? Try my alone.”——-(James, age 32, be homeless for 3 years)
Second, unemployment issues:
—Job lost due to COVID-19
—The structural unemployment: work being replace by technology
—Unable to work due to serious physical injuries.
“I worked in the airport, but I can’t do it now because of COVID.”——-(Jane, age 50, be homeless for 3 years)
“The internet ripped off our job, there is no graphic design agency any more, you can easily get a nice pic for a few quid, or nothing.”——-(Hoffman, age 50, be homeless for 4 years)
“It is hard to work for myself as plumber, I have no security under pandemic. I just keep selling my properties to pay my workers and my business. And nowadays many companies close down and we have much less work to do, and you know what I mean…”——-(Edwards, age 40, be homeless for 2 years)
“It’s hard you know what I mean. If you retire from the army, then you have little job security…….Not because they don’t need us, it takes time you know what I mean.”——-(David, age 50, be homeless for 15 years)
“I had class for trading, not the one you saw on Youtube….I had proper class from a master for 2 grand….I trade for a while and earn a flat, but then our company suffered a huge loss in COVID….I still keep my computer nowadays, what I need is an investment opportunity, and a 4 grand……Government? Government is what it is, if they don’t need you, you have little chance to come back”——-(Richard, be homeless for 2 years)
“I am an personal carer for the old people, but there is little need in the last year so I lost my job and end up in the street…Personal carer is required to serve in house, but nowadays it is a kind of luxury when people start to think about covid.”——-(Tracy, 40 be homeless for 2 years)
“I am waiting my benefit. I had a car crash….one day I cross the road and it hits me…I worked for construction before and there is no way to do that with broken leg….You see the picture, my son and my wife, but they all got left……I will try to contact my son when I got my benefit.”——-(Dave, 48 be homeless for 2 years)
Third: Drug and alchohol abuse issues:
“drug dealers are all over the place, they target homeless people, a majority of people begging around(Kingscross) have drug problem”
“Why anyone need to beg all day man, you beg all day unless is for drug, cigarette and alchohol, food is only a couple of pound, you can pick and ask people couple of pound to get food, if you begging all day is usually for drugs, cigarette, alchohol.”
——Patrick(30 years old, be homeless for 15 years)
“Hostel usually don’t have enough spaces. If there are some spaces, AHH, shit going all night drugs and…..not the right people for me man, I don’t like being there. I feel safe on the street.”
———James(32, be homeless for 2 years)
Also, become streetwise
“They(pedestrian), they say do you want this do you want that… I don’t say anything but Goodafternoon, that’s it, and they give me things, sometimes they give me £10.”
———Lee(50 years old, be homeless for 2 years)
“You know Felix(me) yea, when you live outside, it’s much better, I can get more money and more food and meet more people; when inside, there is TV all the time, it’s false reality.”
———David(53 years old, be homeless for 24 years)
This slight change of communication helps me to unravel the life map of homelessness.
To many homeless people, cigarette is
- a important media to build relationship with others,
- a tool to liven up the conversation.
Brown(2009) stated that one way to try something new is to build on behaviors familiar to them. The most meaningful aspect I learned most from this project is that: like cigarette in this case, to adopt the situation/behavior that are familiar to homeless people is an important hook that help to put our feelings and ideas into context, which made the converations possible.
However, dialogue and cigarette are not feasible enough to help them to raise the sense of community. Although conversation help them to reflect and made them feel slightly better, most of them still feel isolated and being sidelined by society. The negativity starkingly overweight the positivity in their mind. Also, after traveled across Islington, I discover that there is little platform, creative object that can bridge homeless people and citizens for meaningful activities about the community value. I realised there is still a long road to go: homelessness is a problem that we need to learn to live with, and should not treat them outside our community.
Also, from first & secondary research I had conducted, and my experience on the street, I discover that the person myself: my attitude, my passion, my tones, my appearance, my approaches to talk to homeless people, interact together to form a complete package—–a combination of visceral, behavioral and reflective experience to homeless people, in fact I am a design myself. Although many elements ourselves is pre-settted, I have passion to discover what can be done to develop the meaningful bridge between homeless people and us. This inspire me to look into the design realm to help homeless people—-to reshape their life with the help of design.
I will discover more commonground between us in different fields. For example: language, behavior, mindset, and emotion feelings. In order to gain more down-to-ground knowledge to develop the quality of my question and my intervention, I plan to continue the field observations, dialogue events and secondary research on behaviorial design.
Reference:
Brown, T. (2009) Change by Design. HarperCollins
Carol McNaughton (auth.) – Transitions Through Homelessness_ Lives on the Edge-Palgrave Macmillan UK (2008)
Cohen, S. & Taylor, L. (1992) Escape Attempts: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life (2 nd edn) (London: Routledge).
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1998). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday. New York: Basic Books
Norman, D.A. (2004) Emotional Design. New York: Basic Books
Rough sleeping in London https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports
Museum of Homelessness https://museumofhomelessness.org/2021/03/05/museum-of-homelessness-announces-project-fortify-for-2021-funded-by-the-isla-foundation/
Borough Comparison: Housing https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/borough-comparison-housing/
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Fitzpatrick, S. (2005) ‘Explaining Homelessness: A Critical Realist Perspective’, Housing Theory and Society
Channel 4(2019) 60 days on the streets, Documentary