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Groundswell Listen Up! research on cost of living

Groundswell Listen Up! research on cost of living

Groundswell Listen Up! research on cost of living

Monday, June 24, 2024

Groundswell's Listen Up! project has published it's fourth insight, consisting of research into the cost of living crisis, drawing on interviews with people experiencing homelessness and stories from community reporters.

Read now: Listen Up! Insight 4: The cost of living

"We know the rising costs of living affect us all. In our fourth short insight, we looked at the impact for people experiencing homelessness.

We heard about an ‘ongoing cost of living crisis’ for people experiencing homelessness and a continued reliance on voluntary services. We also heard how rising costs have impacted people’s physical and mental health and caused significant anxiety about moving on into independent living, making recovery from homelessness feel even further out of reach.

These insights are published in a briefing along with 9 actions for change, which were coproduced at an Insight to Action webinar attended by people with professional and/or personal experience of the issues."

Headlines

The research draws on interviews with 33 people experiencing homelessness, and a selection of stories from 2 community reporters with experience of homelessness.

  • The way in which the cost of living affected people often depended on their housing and support situation, but not being able to afford the essentials wasn’t a new thing for many people experiencing homelessness, who have been surviving for a long time
  • Some participants explained how rising food, travel and rent costs – alongside the cost of juggling these – impacted both their physical and mental health
  • People were angry and despondent about ‘bearing the brunt’ of the cost of living and were distrustful that anything would change
  • These attitudes were often driven by the media and many people chose to disengage from the news for their mental health
  • Some participants pointed to a continued dependency on voluntary services for their basic needs and ongoing cycles of homelessness, so didn’t feel recent price rises so sharply
  • Despite this, the prospect of moving into their own home and managing these costs caused a significant amount of anxiety and pushed recovery from homelessness even further out of reach.

“I am worried about how I'm going to cover all of these costs in the future. Yeah, I'm trying not think that far ahead, to be honest, but it is concerning. I'm hearing about the energy prices and whatnot going up and having people paying stupid amounts. The people that I know from here have moved on to a move-on house [...] I want my own place so that I can show to the social services I can live independently and clean [...] That's my path where I want to go, I go down. But I don’t know how I’m going to afford that.” 

Read now: Listen Up! Insight 4: The cost of living

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