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I might have spent the pandemic under effective ‘house arrest’ but I for one don’t want society to return to the old normal
Change is not inevitable after a crisis and we can slip back into bad habits. The sector should collaborate with community activists and marginalised people as well as local businesses as it looks to rebuild, writes Anne McGurk
When Phoenix Community Housing offices closed back in March I was already a day into ‘house arrest’ classed as vulnerable. It was a surreal time watching on TV the panic-buying as toilet rolls, flour and pasta vanished off the supermarket shelves to become precious goods. Keeping a two-metre distance became prosocial, while close proximity was suddenly anti-social – the world was turning upside down.
It wasn’t long before the reality of the virus’ drastic impact on everyday life came flooding into my isolation from the outside world. The pandemic has more than interrupted our normal way of life – it has challenged it.
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Yes, housing organisations like Phoenix have managed most of their operations well, running them efficiently and effectively via homeworking, with their essential workers keeping social distancing and limiting their activities to key areas. On the whole appropriate equipment has been provided for those working at home, although I’m very mindful of the challenges of finding adequate quiet space, of caring duties, childcare and home schooling.
But what are we learning?
As well as the dreadful consequences of the virus it has provided a pause, an opportunity to rethink our ‘normal’ way of life and dare I say it, a chance to create something better. We must use the opportunity to create a better world rather than recreate the world as we have known it.
The pandemic has exposed and compounded inequalities in matters large and small. We can surely do better than to go back to ‘normal’ or its offspring the ‘new normal’.
Normal, where we accept the growing wealth inequalities; where people receiving benefits or living in social housing are stigmatised; where skin colour, accent, or gender preference determines one’s worth; where the right to have a home that meets one’s needs is ignored or sidelined – the list of inequalities is too long to itemise here.
We in the housing sector are only too aware that access to private and manageable space has emerged as a new class divide – more valuable than ever to those who have it and potentially fatal to those who don’t. Privacy is at a premium among those on low incomes.
COVID-19 is casting a stark light on the many intersecting inequalities that our society has created. It is acting as a catalyst to make things even worse for those already struggling to make it through each month, week, or day. These are inequalities that devastate people’s lives and limit their opportunities – inequalities that should have no place in the future we must work to create.
We don’t have to wait for the government to legislate or introduce new policies – we can start in our own communities, our own organisations.
We can search for solutions to help the environment when we develop, repair and maintain our properties. Solutions that are practical, affordable and easily adoptable. Solutions that add to the quality of the lives of our tenants.
We can invest in and build the resilience of our local communities and local organisations, an effective way to help local families respond and recover from problems they may face.
Collaboration with community activists, the vulnerable and marginalised, local businesses and councils can bring about new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Incorporating insights and ideas from our diverse communities is central to the co-creation of healthy neighbourhoods.
We can invest in truly affordable high quality, low maintenance and stable housing for low-income families, with ease of access to garden spaces, play areas and transport.
We can advocate for safe, secure and dignified employment – ensuring that is the case in our own organisations and those we work with and partner.
We can take those first steps forward to building a better future, a better society than yesterday’s normal.
It could be a society where there is greater individual security and equality, especially in the areas of health, jobs, housing and education. We could create communities with mutual understanding and respect – in other words, the excesses that currently present in society can be addressed, reduced or, better still, eliminated.
Let’s make a start in our own communities by not buying into systems that perpetuate the ‘normal’. COVID-19 has shown there is an abundance of goodwill, humanity, solidarity and kindness in our communities – there is also domestic violence, racist attacks, hoarding of limited resources and profiteering at work.
I for one don’t want to return to a normal, to the way things were, that includes any of the latter characteristics. Change is not inevitable after a crisis, we can soon slip back into old familiar ways, but I say change is imperative if we are to ‘build back better’!
Anne McGurk, chair and tenant, Phoenix Community Housing
