King Street's IKEA Reveals 'Real Life Roomset'
Store teams up with Shelter to show horrors of temporary accommodation
The Hammersmith store tells the story of Sam's battle with homelessness
March 24, 2023
Shoppers at King Street’s IKEA touring the store’s designer showrooms are discovering a very different ‘real life roomset’.
The roomset, one of four set up at IKEA stores around the country, has been created with the help of homelessness charity Shelter aiming to highlight the cramped, dangerous, and unfit space that an increasing number of people are forced to experience living in temporary accommodation.
Temporary accommodation, which includes emergency hostels, B&Bs, one room bedsits and cramped flats, is provided by councils to qualifying families who are homeless and is designed to be just that: temporary. However, with a shortage in social housing, some families are finding themselves living in temporary accommodation for years and are very often asked to move several times at short notice.
Each of these IKEA rooms is based around the real life experience of a local person, and the Hammersmith store tells the story of Sam, who became homeless after her relationship broke down, and was placed in a hostel room like this with her three young children. Concerned about her safety, she moved out, sleeping in a car for seven weeks while her children stayed with a friend.
Finally, she was given new accommodation which was no better than the first. There was black mould everywhere and a lingering smell of cannabis. There was a hole in the door where the letterbox should have been, and she was assaulted on two occasions. Worst of all, Sam was separated from her three children yet again because her temporary accommodation was an hour and forty minutes away from their school. The constant upheavals and separation tested the resilience of the family.
Shelter campaigner Sam says the room set up in store is very realistic
After working with the council Sam finally found a private rental and was reunited with her children at Christmas. But she still worries about the long-term impact of living in temporary accommodation and says of IKEA's initiative: " If it helps raise awareness and gets the message out there that people are living like this and children are having to live like this, it's completely worth it."
According to research commissioned by IKEA, one in five people in the UK are worried about losing their home, with almost half saying if they lost their current home, they would struggle to find somewhere else to live.
IKEA adds that one in 208 of us in England is currently experiencing homelessness, with thousands more families likely to lose their homes by the end of the year as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
And the chain says: “Together with Shelter, we have created ‘Real Life Roomsets’ to raise awareness of this issue and highlight the real living conditions of those who are forced into temporary accommodation as a result.
“ Sam’s story isn’t unique. Thousands of families are stuck in places like this because they have nowhere else to go.”
The display aims to show the real experience of homelessness
including mould
The ‘real life’ campaign comes as part of the Swedish chain’s long-term partnership with Shelter, and together they are demanding that 90,000 social homes must be built every year by 2030 to help address the housing emergency.
IKEA has also joined Shelter’s campaign to amend the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill with a new Infrastructure Levy, to ensure all new truly affordable homes are social housing.
As well as our local store, other real life roomsets have been created in Birmingham, Bristol and Warrington, all in or near cities experiencing some of the worst levels of homelessness.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |