4) Research: 'Gypsies and Travellers in UK face housing crisis, charities warn' The Guardian

After just doing some initial searches on the word 'traveller' I came across this article from The Guardian which was speaking about the housing crisis these individuals face. The article and my notes on it can be seen below:

The first thing I noticed from the article was that it was published very recently, on the 18th of January to be exact. This highlights to me that this is a current and on-going issue, so this project is going to be a relevant topic, all the more reason to get it noticed by people. The article also stated that all these unauthorised sites have been set up as a result of there not being enough authorised sites in the first place, so these travellers are not fully to blame for their actions.

The article also mentioned an interesting quote which showed that there's been a rise of 17% of caravans on unauthorised encampments since a year has past, bringing the figure to 1,524 in the UK. I feel if a lot more people knew this fact then there would be actions in place to help accomodate this community, because I myself didn't know it was expanding each year.

Comparing this 17% rise to a 2% rise (between 2010 and 2017) in socially rented pitches is a crazy difference, showing there is not enough sites to "cater for the natural growth of nomadic communities in the UK". As well as this, those that are living in unauthorised sites are being moved on by the Police, which again is not helping the problem any further.

One quote from Siobhan Spencer really stuck out to me from the article, in which she underlines that there is no need for new laws to deal with bad behaviour in travelling communities, and that "You've got saints and sinners everywhere. If people have done wrong, they can be dealt with using the current laws.". I strongly agree with this, and think that these individuals shouldn't be treated differently and have new laws created to deal with them, because they're just the same as me and you, just living their life in a different way.

(on my last print out the ink smudged so here is the web version of the text):

The other prominent viewpoint I found was from MacNamara, who highlighted that this lack of help is down to prejudice against these groups, backed up by a YouGov poll that stated "40% of British parents would be unhappy if a close relative formed a relationship with a Traveller". I think this is definitely a fair statement, especially knowing that many homeowners living near these unauthorised sites have contacted the Police to get them evicted and moved on.

She went on to say that "They are the oldest ethnic minority in Britain and Ireland. They are not just going to suddenly disappear." and if that quote doesn't scream out that we should help them, I don't know what does. I think remembering history is a very important thing for improving the future, and if we don't recognise that we need to help this group of people, things are going to continue getting worse for them.

Overall I feel this research was really beneficial in helping me learn more about the current situation of travellers, and how the government feel towards them. This has motivated me further to shoot this project, for the intention that these people need to be recognised and shown in a good light, to give more visibility to the struggles they're facing, and hopefully meaning more people will want to see them helped by the government with fully equipped sites to live on.

#creativeinteractions #research