Fighting back
A group of housing professionals in Wales decided they’d had enough of negative stereotyping of social housing and tenants. The team behind #CouncilHomeChat explain the campaign so far and what happens next
We’ve all seen or heard about the flurry of sensationalist television programmes that pass for quality documentary film-making these days. Programmes like Benefits Street, On Benefits and Proud and more recently, How to get a Council House, are just some of the examples of what has been described as a new TV genre of ‘poverty porn’.
These programmes do highlight some of the issues caused by the UK’s housing crisis. However, they fail to look deeper into what got us here in the first place. Instead, they prefer to demonise social housing tenants and use them as easy targets to focus society’s frustrations and blame.
The media portrayal of social housing is undeniably significant as it has a direct impact on the attitudes and opinions of the general public. A brief trip through the Twitter hashtag line (#howtogetacouncilhouse) brings you into contact with, at best misinformed, and at worst downright vile comments about the people featured in the programme. It has become too easy to demonise those who are increasingly ‘voiceless’ rather than challenge and question how we can change the situation to benefit everyone. Colin Wiles encapsulated it brilliantly in his Inside Housing blog, where he states we are ‘blaming the poor, rather than the system that created their poverty’.
So, we decided – ‘enough is enough!’
It’s time to change the conversation and add balance to a debate which has become wholly one-sided. Social housing has been the springboard starting-point in life for people; it has been the safety net for people who have experienced sometimes catastrophic change in their lives; and it has been a richly rewarding career choice for thousands of men and women across the UK. These are the stories that we rarely hear in the sensationalised portrayal of social housing.
#CouncilHomeChat provides a platform for those who live, work and believe in social housing with the opportunity to share their positive stories and begin to challenge negative stereotypes. In the past few weeks we have been gathering tenant, staff and organisations stories, which have contributed to our Twitter, Facebook and blog pages. Individually these stories are very moving, but together they become a powerful symbol of the positive impact social housing can have upon people from all walks of life.
As well as gathering positive stories and experiences, we have also challenged bigoted and misinformed views on Twitter, whilst programmes like How to Get a Council House have been aired on TV. Our recent Thunderclap was a huge success, with a social reach of 400,000 people!
Now we have people’s attention, we want to develop our campaign so we can have the biggest possible impact. In order to do this we need YOU! Over the next few months, we will be collecting stories and would like to encourage you to empower your staff and tenants to get involved in the campaign and to share their experiences. We’re happy to receive any form of content, some examples include tweets, videos, photographs or blogs.
The inside track
Now that #CouncilHomeChat has achieved its short term goal of providing an alternative story during programmes such as; How to Get a Council House, we are now developing the campaign to take it to the next stage. One of our ambitions is to crowd-fund a documentary, produced by those who live, work and believe in social housing, which really celebrates the sector and those who live and work within it.
The conversation so far
Here are some quotes from posts so far on the #CouncilHomeChat blog:
‘Social housing is a lifeline for individuals experiencing domestic abuse’ – Gudrun Burnet
‘If we’re going to get across what we believe, we have to act smarter and find new ways to say it. Let’s not drop the baton now’ – Paul Diggory
‘Social housing is for some the only option and if the government doesn’t start building more homes instead of blaming those that rely on the system for their circumstances then it’s only going to get worse’ – Jack Wrighton
‘Council housing and the ethos behind its provision is in me and I am unwilling to let either disappear without a fight’ – Fiona
If you’d like to get involved please get in touch
The #CouncilhomeChat team is Cheryl Tracy, Elisa Faulkner, Michala Rudman and Michelle Reid. Follow the campaign and get involved on twitter @Councilhomechat, on Facebook at facebook.com/ilovecouncilhousing and our blog at councilhomeschat.wordpress.com.