Housing & Homelessness

A large number of the videos in the archive focus on housing, with some of the earliest uses of community video being for this purpose–used to highlight poor living conditions and challenge housing authorities. This collection focuses on different housing problems and the ways people used video to respond. It features documentation of organising and action by tenants in North Kensington, Deptford and Camden, including Pepys Estate Community Association and the squatters’ Residents Association on Prince of Wales Crescent. Interviews with young and Black homeless people reveal encounters with local services and initiatives set up to support them, such as UJIMAA Housing Association, Centrepoint, the Longstop Project, Threshold Centre, and Stopover Lewisham. The collection also includes a recorded theatre production by the Second Wave Young Women’s Group. The collection covers topics such as: residents’ meetings; life on estates; facilities; community events; disrepair; the council; homelessness among young and Black people; lack of affordable housing; barriers to employment and welfare; co-ops; and squatting. Featured titles include Squat Now Whilst Stocks Last; Black Homelessness; Murcheson Tenants; and A Place of My Own, or Young People, Housing and Homelessness.