Four walls don't make a home
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A shortage of sites is forcing many Gypsy and Traveller families to move into permanent homes. Here, in their own words and pictures, they describe their plight
An increasing shortage of licensed sites across the UK is forcing Gypsy and Traveller families to move into permanent housing. Many would rather not be there.
The photographs on these pages were taken by members of two Traveller families living in council accommodation in east London, with support from community arts organisation On Site Arts. Their testimony – taken from interviews with members of the London Gypsy and Traveller Unit, a Hackney-based community development organisation – accompanies their pictures.
‘[Permanent housing] doesn’t offer security,’ says Frieda Schicker of the LGTU. ‘People think it’s bricks and mortar, but often families are split.’
Often, she adds, when young Travellers marry they find that there is no room for them to stay onsite. They are then forced to apply to the council for a permanent house, often far from their families and among culturally alien communities.
It can be difficult for these families to integrate with their settled neighbours. Racism is a fact of life for many Gypsies and Travellers, as the interviews on these pages demonstrate. Maria declined to face the camera when her daughter took her picture for fear she might be identified and persecuted.
‘If you’re young and isolated, possibly getting racist abuse, it can be difficult to cope,’ says Ms Schicker. ‘Their extended family support system is broken down and they don’t get it elsewhere.’
London mayor Boris Johnson’s draft housing strategy last month promised that around 800 licensed Gypsy and Traveller pitches would be created in the city over the next decade, following need assessments by councils. This will be welcome news to those living in unfamiliar environments away from their families; politically, at least, the impetus is with them. Public reaction to the mayor’s pledge may well demonstrate how far society is lagging behind.
Maria, 48
I came to London 15 years ago when I was 33 and I had all the nine children with me. I split up from my husband and came to get a break with the past and to get a better life for me and for my children.
I have a permanent council place now but we have had a bad time with it all. It’s very run down and I don’t read good so it’s hard for me to know what the letters that come are for. We had terrible times with local children here because we are Travellers. They attacked us a lot, they put out our windows all the time and they even broke the door down. In the end the police came and sorted it but it was a long time and frightening to us.
If I could live on a council-run Travellers’ site, I would. But there are no sites to go to. I would feel safer with other Travellers and my children. If they could get a pitch, they could bring their own children up as Travellers – that’s who they are.
Patricia, 27
I loved it on the camps with people I know, but eventually there was nowhere to stop around Hackney, they took the places away… My kids don’t mix with others on the estate. They have had a different upbringing and way of life to our kids. I am always out of the flat every day, down with my family who live on a site now and where the kids can be outside, which is how Travellers are. Where we live there’s nowhere outside that is safe. We are hemmed in and I feel on my own and I worry about the children’s future.
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