Hannah

Conway

This Room

Sound Voice

One woman’s hard-lived reality of temporary accommodation. Following her traumatic escape from domestic violence she is given a home that is filthy and dangerously unfit for her two young children.

 

 

 

There is a stark correlation between child mortality and being homeless in England.

34 children have died unexpectedly since 2019.* The piece is a collaboration between Sound Voice and researchers from the CHAMPIONS Project. It is informed by robust research data and evidence.

It is crafted from real interviews. This is not unique. It is the story of thousands of families across the UK.

The work ends with a reference to the tragic death of Iwaab Ishak (aged 2) in 2020 due to a fatal respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his social-housing home.

* The data was compiled by an NHS-funded body, the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), for a report written by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Temporary Accommodation. The NCMD, which was set up in 2018, found that being homeless may have been a contributing factor in the sudden and unexpected deaths of 34 children between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2022.

 

THIS ROOM

 

Music by Hannah Conway
Words by Hazel Gould

Nadine Benjamin – soprano

real spoken testimonial of a women who has survived temporary accommodation

violin – Magdalena Filipczak
cello – Ben Chappell
piano – Maria Struckova

Creative Producer – Katherine Wilde
Sound Artist – Francesca Panetta
Sound Engineer – Brett Cox

Created in collaboration with the CHAMPIONS Project (UCL/DMU) and Bee Squad.

Informed by research evidence.

This work is funded by ESRC as part of UK Research & Innovation’s rapid response to COVID 19 and the Rosetrees Foundation, UCL’s Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Grand Challenges.

Bee Squad is grateful to Young Manchester for supporting their involvement in this project with a City of Social Action grant.

Special thanks to:

Researchers Prof. Monica Lakhanpaul and Dr Nadia Svirydzenka

Jo Spurling

and to many families across the UK with lived experience of temporary accommodation who contributed their stories.