About the project
The Sensory Lives project aims to better understand how homeless families with neurodivergent children experience living in temporary accommodation (TA). It is supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
In 21st century England, one of the wealthiest yet most unequal nations in the world, a shocking 164,000 children are homeless and living in TA. This ranges from hotels to B&Bs, private hostels, short-stay Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO), to other emerging forms of provision such as modular developments, shipping containers, and converted office blocks. Described as part of the ‘hidden homeless’ in England’s housing crisis, a significant proportion of households in TA are single women with dependent children. Families’ stays in TA can stretch from months, to years, to entire childhoods. These extended stays can be damaging to children’s health, education and wellbeing in the short term, and will have as-yet unknown consequences in their future lives.
For neurodivergent children (a broad term encompassing but not restricted to autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette’s Syndrome, sensory processing disorders, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder),* living in TA is especially challenging due to sensory and communication difficulties, unpredictable and often frequent changes to routine, and the challenges of accessing special educational needs (SEN) services and healthcare as families are moved between local authorities and on and off waiting lists for support. In this project, we want to work with neurodivergent children and their families to highlight and learn more about their experiences of TA.
Collaborating with the Shared Health Foundation in Greater Manchester, we are developing playful, creative and inclusive methods for working with neurodivergent children and their families in research of this kind. This includes the design and tour of a playhouse tent which will communicate children’s experiences to diverse audiences. In doing so, we hope to re-centre children’s perspectives in discussions of homelessness and communicate neurological difference more inclusively in research and policy.
Supported by:
*We recognise that there is no one definition of neurodiversity and that people have differing opinions on what should or should not be included under this label. We follow Autistica’s definition of neurodiversity as an umbrella term that describes“a group of people whose ways of processing information, behaving, and experiencing the environment differs from the neurotypical majority” (2024, p.4). Neurodiversity is a community-developed term (Botha et al., 2024) which follows the social model of disability (neurological difference occurs naturally) rather than the medical model of disability (neurological difference implies a deficit). We recognise that people may self-identify as neurodivergent with or without a formal (medical) diagnosis of a condition typically understood to fall under the neurodivergent umbrella – and that some people might choose not to use the neurodiversity label at all.