Furniture poverty, fuel poverty, food poverty, period poverty… they all describe very real challenges. But are they really just different labels for the same underlying problem?
In his latest opinion piece, CEO of Coastline Allister Young looks at the pressures of poverty.
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a roundtable in Truro chaired by Jayne Kirkham MP to talk about ‘furniture poverty’ in social housing in Cornwall. It ended up being one of those discussions where the most interesting point was not really about the thing we had all come together to discuss.
We started by talking about floor coverings and furniture. About what happens when someone moves into a home but does not have the money for carpets, curtains, white goods or the basic things that make a property feel like home. For anyone who has ever moved home, it is easy to understand how quickly those costs add up. For someone already under financial pressure, they can be overwhelming.
But the point that really stayed with me was made at the end of the meeting and was much broader than that. Several people around the table questioned whether it is always helpful to talk about ‘fuel poverty’, ‘food poverty’, ‘period poverty’, ‘furniture poverty’ and all the other versions of poverty as though they are separate things.
The labels and categories can be useful. They can help us understand particular pressures and design practical solutions, like how social housing providers in Cornwall have come together to try to ensure that where possible floor coverings are retained in homes for new customers. But people do not experience poverty in separate neat categories. They experience poverty. They experience not having enough money for the essentials of life, or to absorb a problem when something goes wrong. They experience not being able to heat their home, replace a broken cooker, buy school uniform, get to work, furnish a new tenancy or keep up with everyday bills.
That was in my mind when I read two reports that had been shared with me recently: the English Housing Survey and the Trussell Trust’s report on housing and hardship. An insightful post on LinkedIn from Simon Fann about this very report got me further thinking about these issues as I penned this update.
The English Housing Survey is a government survey looking at people's homes, housing conditions and experiences. It shows, among other things, that poor housing quality, damp, cold homes, affordability and wellbeing are closely linked. The Trussell report approaches the issue from a different angle. It highlights how high housing costs, poor quality homes, and a lack of basic furnishings can leave people without enough for essentials. Basically, poor quality, expensive homes can pull people into hardship and poverty.
The writer Rutger Bregman once said that "poverty is not a lack of character, it is a lack of cash". It is a simple statement, but a powerful one. The conversation at the roundtable, and the reports that I saw afterwards, left me thinking there is a lot of truth in it.
Furniture poverty, fuel poverty, food poverty and all the other labels describe real challenges. But they are really just different labels for the same underlying problem. And if we want to tackle the problem, we cannot lose sight of the cause.
The work that Coastline does matters. A good home is essential as a foundation for people’s lives. But Coastline alone cannot solve poverty in Cornwall. Apart from anything else, a safe, warm, affordable home is not the whole answer to poverty. What we can do is keep working with others to make the problem smaller for the people we are here to support, and campaign for positive change that will have a real impact on people living in poverty in Cornwall.
And perhaps the challenge for all of us is to keep seeing the whole person, not just the label attached to the problem they happen to be facing that day.