Making a House in Multiple Occupation a Home: Using Visual Ethnography to Explore Issues of Identity and Well-Being in the Experience of Creating a Home Amongst HMO Tenants

Abstract

Housing research and sociological research on 'home' has under-explored Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) as a form of specific and relatively marginalised housing tenure. In this paper we utilise data collected through participant photography and interviews with vulnerable HMO residents in a seaside town to explore their experiences of homemaking in HMOs. Drawing on literatures on home, identity and wellbeing we explore how HMO residents create a home in the space in which they live and how where they live simultaneously moulds their sense of identity. Our analysis is based upon interviews with, and photographs taken by, HMO residents. We highlight how home is created and experienced in a setting where basic levels of privacy can be hard to maintain, where space is constrained, and where residents would often prefer to live elsewhere. The meaning of 'home' in a HMO is influenced by personal histories and circumstances, by the normative attitudes towards housing in the UK, as well as by the space itself. The impact that living in a HMO might have on a tenant's identity and as a consequence their wellbeing is therefore highly contextual -not solely due to the characteristics of the property itself and the stigma some associate with this housing type but as an outcome of how the tenants relate to the property given their own preferences, conditioning and previous housing experience. There was variation in the extent to which respondents wanted their room to reflect, project or build their identity.

Researching Home’s Tangible and Intangible Materialities by Photo-Elicitation

“…Hence, studies tend to be small. Our reading of the literature shows participants may be fewer than 10 ( Barratt and Green 2017;Jones 2017;Madsen 2018;Radley and Taylor 2003;Samuels 2004) and commonly between 10 and 20 (Fozdar and Hartley 2014;Heath et al 2018;McCarthy 2019;Pini et al 2019). Samples over 20 are rare (Coleman, Kearns, and Wiles 2016;Kohon and Carder 2014;Mullen et al 2019;van Auken, Frisvoll, and Stewart 2010).…”

“…It can likewise contribute new knowledge and inspire new conceptualizations to other research questions. More generally, by presenting some substantive insights enabled by the method, the paper adds to a new strand of the home literature that engages with the vibrancy of things (Bennett 2010;DeLanda 2016) and more unsettling practices of constructing a sense of home (Barratt and Green 2017;Brickell 2012;McCarthy 2019;Simone 2016).…”

Life Between Walls: Race, Subdivision and Lodging Houses in Postwar London

“…Recently there has been a great deal of research interrogating both the historical construction of this idealised image and the experience of other forms of domesticity, considering, for example, the domestic lives of migrants, single people and those living in institutional accommodation, as well as conceptions of home across national and cultural formations (Barratt and Green 2017;Webster 1998). Within this literature, lodging houses have received some attention.…”

Supporting Tenants with Multiple and Complex Needs in Houses in Multiple Occupation: The Need to Balance Planning Restrictions and Housing Enforcement with Support

“…This makes appropriate policy interventions increasingly important. Current literature and research examining the experiences of HMO tenants provides a valuable insight into the challenges faced by many tenants (Barratt et al, 2012;Smith, 2012;Barratt et al, 2015;Barratt and Green, 2017;Wilson, 2017). This article aims to add to this debate drawing upon unique insights from new research focusing on the lived experiences of HMO tenants with MCN, as well as consultations with HMO working groups and stakeholders, which compare the experiences of two case study areas; one where support is provided to HMO tenants and one where support was absent.…”

“…At the same time, a growing body of research identifies how the changing housing landscapeincluding the growth in numbers of HMOshas affected the lives of some of the most vulnerable renters in the UK; those who experience the fewest housing choices (Barratt et al, 2012;Rose and Davies, 2014;Barratt et al, 2015;Green and McCarthy, 2015;Cole et al, 2016;Barratt and Green, 2017) and are often limited to housing characterised as the 'bottom end' of the private rented sector (Rugg and Rhodes, 2008: 21) or housing of 'last resort' (Irving, 2015). Indeed, it is suggested that HMOs 'often house vulnerable tenants' (Wilson and Cromarty, 2019: 3), including those with multiple and complex needs (MCN).…”