In recent years the well-known Swedish homeware store ran an ad campaign with the tagline ‘every home should be a haven’. The ad depicts the home being a buffer to all the stresses of the outside world. It is what we all aspire to – shutting our front door to the problems outside. Yet for the families we support, this is not their experience. For these families, their housing is anything but a haven, and the stressors are inside the home as much as they are outside. This stress significantly negatively impacts family relationships and their physical and mental health and well-being.
Our report LACK: Housing, Care and Isolation set out the experiences of includem’s community-based workers in providing well-being and practical support to children, young people and families facing challenges related to their housing across the country. The responses are dominated by a LACK of space, repairs, resources, certainty, hope, communication, support, or suitability for living as a family.
To #KeepThePromise and Scotland’s commitment to whole family support and tackling child poverty, the significant impact of housing challenges on a family’s home and well-being must be recognised. We must respond to families living in cold, unfurnished, unstable, mouldy housing and the impact on their well-being. We need to work together to address the root causes to ensure all families have – not just a place to call home – but one that is a haven for them and those they love.
