'Real life roomset' launches as IKEA Bristol partners with homeless charity Shelter
The roomsets have been installed in a number of stores across the country to highlight the importance of the housing emergency
Last updated 9th Jun 2024
In IKEA stores across the country - including in Bristol - a number of 'real life roomsets' have been constructed to highlight the real impact of the country's crisis in homelessness.
It comes as the charity Shelter has this week revealed 1 in 208 people in England are currently experiencing homelessness, while over 11 million of us across the UK fear we may lose our home amid the cost of living crisis.
Homelessness charity Shelter have been partnering with the Swedish furniture store on the project, with each of the displays representing how four real-life case studies have to live their lives after being put-up in temporary accommodation.
In Bristol, they focus on Kate - a real-life qualified nurse and teacher, who was made jobless during the pandemic. She lives in a room just like the one installed in the store along with her 24-year-old daughter, with the pair suffering severe domestic abuse and harassment from an ex-partner.
Another woman, a mother-of-three, ended up in accommodation with black mould. The charity said each roomset highlights the "cramped, dangerous and grotty spaces that an increasing number of people who are experiencing homelessness are forced to experience when living in temporary accommodation".
Those stores hosting a 'real life roomset' are:
- London - where 1 in 58 people are experiencing homelessness
- Manchester - where 1 in 74 people are experiencing homelessness
- Birmingham - where 1 in 80 people are experiencing homelessness
- Bristol - where 1 in 183 people are experiencing homelessness
According to stats shared by the homeless charity Shelter, one in five (21%) adults in the UK are worried about losing their home, with half (49%) saying if it happened, they would struggle to find somewhere else to live.
Alison Rush is Shelter's Services Lead in Bristol, and told us: "As you can see from the space - there really is no space. For instance, there's no room to do any homework, and quite often there's no privacy either.
"We're desperately worried that more people will be placed in homelessness this year and we need to build a new generation of good-quality social housing that people can actually afford to live in, and then we can move on families away from the grotty accommodation that they're stuck in as soon as possible.
"You might have an idea of what homelessness looks like on the streets, but there are so many people like Kate who we've based our installation in Bristol too - and it's about bringing the awareness of people like her."
In the past year in order to keep up with their housing costs, 18% of people in the UK say they have taken on additional work and a further quarter (25%) would consider it.
The charity say that temporary accommodation is provided by councils to qualifying families who are homeless, but some families are finding themselves living in temporary accommodation for years and are very often asked to move several times with short notice.
‘Real Life Roomsets’ comes as part of IKEA and Shelter’s campaign, which calls for 90,000 social homes to be built a year by 2030 to help address the housing emergency, which 59% of adults in the UK believe is worse than ever.
You can find out more about Ikea's 'Real Life Roomsets' on their website.
You can find out more and get help from Shelter on their website.