'Families Living in Temporary Accommodation'

When a family is experiencing homelessness, it becomes the duty of a local authority to move them into temporary accommodation. The reasons families face homelessness are numerous - they could be fleeing domestic violence, facing eviction, or struggling to meet the cost of increasing rent. There are 109,000 households in temporary accommodation in England, including 142,490 children. In comparison, 3,900 people are experiencing street homelessness (data from September 2023).

This photography exhibition was commissioned by the Households in Temporary Accommodation APPG and presents the work of artist Anthony Luvera. Since 2022, Luvera has been embedded within the team of Focused Care practitioners for homeless families at Shared Health Foundation, working with families living in temporary accommodation across Greater Manchester to represent their experiences through photography and audio recordings. Shown here is a selection of portraits of the families and excerpts from conversations recorded with participants – a window into an often-hidden world.

Each family has a different story about how they got here, and where they are headed next. These accounts show parents who are willing to fight for a better future for their children. So we and they, dare to hope. We hope that through these words and images you will get an insight into the complexity and the sorrow of temporary accommodation, the resilience and grit of those that live there and the changes that are possible.