‘Computer says no’: how a new exhibition is exposing the bureaucracy faced by homeless people

Your exhibition at Foyles consists of two bodies of work. ‘Frequently Asked Questions’, in particular, looks at the way service providers interact with individuals who are homeless and trying to navigate the system. Where did the idea come from and what were you trying to achieve with the work?

In 2014, when preparing for an exhibition of this work in Brighton, which is called ‘Assembly’, I was keen to include information in the gallery about support available to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

I spent time gathering all kinds of information produced by charities, housing trusts, local authorities and other services. When reviewing this material, what was striking was how much of it seemed to primarily serve the marketing interests of the organisation paying for it rather than providing useful answers to practical questions.

So, in conversation with a participant, Gerald Mclaverty, we decided to approach compiling this information in a different way. The idea was to gather information about the support and services available to a homeless person but through a direct request from someone experiencing homelessness and in need of answers.

We sent emails to 44 local authorities around the UK asking several questions about a homeless individual’s right to access basic living provisions, such as shelter, personal safety, health, food and communication. What came back was mostly automated replies that ignored the sender – Gerald – and the urgency of his questions. Only four local authorities attempted to provide answers. This seemed to say as much about the state of legislated support services as anything else.

Throughout 2017, Gerald and I undertook further research with a new round of enquiries, which resulted in a display at Tate Liverpool as part of the State of the Nation programme with the Museum of Homelessness. We sent a second email to 61 councils and received a similarly alarming response. Ninety-two per cent of the local authorities gave no answers to the questions and 19 councils promised a response within a certain timeframe – ranging from 24 hours to 28 days – with only one honouring their response time pledge.

Then, considering the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which legally bound local authorities with new duties in relation to homeless individuals, we thought it was an important moment to conduct further questioning of councils in 2019, to see if the act had resulted in an discernible change in their behaviour – in effect putting their performance under the microscope. ‘Taking Place’ at the Gallery at Foyles presents an overview of the five years of research underpinning Frequently Asked Questions, alongside the photographic work from Assembly.

What did Frequently Asked Questions teach you about the way services operate for homeless people?

There was a wide disparity in the way local authorities dealt with Gerald’s enquiry. This indicates a lot about the way specific councils treat individual enquiries from a person experiencing homelessness and how this aligns
or is out of step with the stated intentions or aims of the authority.

In 2019, one of the things that occurred for the first time was some of the responses that came back from the councils offered a telephone call or a meeting. This did not happen at all in 2014 or 2017, and I’m sure it can be attributed to the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act. This is positive! However, this only accounts for 23% of the 110 local authorities contacted.

The Assisted Self-Portrait series: Assisted Self-Portrait of (left to right) Gerald Mclaverty, Kristel Aasjoe, Ady Baldwin, Fred Clarke, Momodou Njie, Ben Evans, Yolanda Bath and Mark Tomlinson from ‘Assembly’ by Anthony Luvera (click to view larger image)

Did the responses Gerald’s questions received surprise you? If so, why?

Overall I find the responses to Gerald’s questions alarming. The fact that an individual reaching out to the contact listed on a local authority’s website for housing and homelessness enquiries can be treated with such apparent disregard in so many instances is abominable.

When you read through the email correspondence for each of the survey years, there are a number of elements that stand out. For example, although the enquiry was sent to homelessness and housing support listed on council websites, in 2017 the responses came back from several seemingly unrelated and often quite bizarre sounding teams and departments, including: law and governance services, performance and intelligence, finance, and transformation services.

One of the things that caught me by surprise in the 2019 round of emails was how Hull answered the questions. The beginning of Gerald’s enquiry simply stated, ‘I’m homeless and I have no money, please answer the following questions…’ In answer to the question, ‘Where can I get clothes, footwear and a blanket?’, the housing options officer replied, ‘Shops’. The answers provided in their email were so flippant and unsympathetic that at times they appear cruel.

Frequently Asked Questions is less about finger-waving at bad practice than it is an attempt to point out that homelessness is a symptom of structural problems, which are often perpetuated by the systems that are ostensibly in place to ameliorate them.

There is a lot to be learned from the information Frequently Asked Questions presents in how local authorities can learn from each other. I’m sure homelessness and housing departments of local authorities operate under difficult circumstances at times. One of the reasons the email correspondence is included in the exhibition is so that the audience can see the range of replies and see that there are models of good practice, just as much as there examples of not so good practice.

Our core readership work for councils and housing associations. What learning do you think there is for them from Frequently Asked Questions? How would you like to see things change?

One of the things Frequently Asked Questions has taught me is that there appears to be a wide disparity in the practices enacted by local authorities in relation to not only how the housing and homelessness support services communicate with people experiencing homelessness, but in how this communication does or does not demonstrate a culture of care. Some of the local authorities appear to operate with what could be seen as excellent examples of best practice, while others are far from this.

Frequently Asked Questions provides a picture of how support services both help and hinder people, and gives an insight into the challenges and realities faced by the most marginalised individuals in society as they attempt to access systems of care. I hope the work can point out ways for local authorities to align areas of best practice and work towards more person-centred ways of working that truly put people’s needs first.