Your say / Society
‘More houses & fewer parks might not be bad’
Rebecca Davidson, 33, was living happily in St Paul’s with her two children until her landlord gave her two months’ notice to leave as he was selling the property. She had no savings for a deposit and nowhere to go.
Rebecca says: “My experience of homelessness has left me very worried about my security. There’s still people becoming homeless, left, right and centre.”
Imogen lives in fear of her neighbour downstairs. She told us: “Housing should be something that we’ve all got. My landlord thinks he has the right to put up the rent every time he fixes something. I can’t afford to move, so I’m stuck here. But my story is a happy one because I’ve got a home.”
is needed now More than ever
You can learn more about Rebecca, Imogen and others suffering from Bristol’s housing crisis here:
David Ingerslev who works for charity St Mungo’s, helping people living on the street said: “Bristol desperately needs more homes. The costs of private rented homes are out of the reach of many people on low incomes or benefits while demand for homes is much higher than the number of homes available. Significant numbers of people are sleeping rough. The only viable solution is to build more homes.”
So we need more affordable homes. But where are they going to go?
Bristol City Council owns 80 hectares of land ear marked for new homes with hundreds of smaller plots yet to be allocated for housing. In the past and still today, many new homes in the UK are built at densities of less than 20 homes per hectare whereas areas such as Southville have densities of over 60 homes per hectare.
Existing low densities are typical in areas where the council own lots of land such as Southmead, Hartcliffe and Lawrence Weston.
These estates were built to house families but now these three-bed semis are home to just two people, often an older couple. This means fewer people using local shops which leads to shops closing. The heart of the community is weakened.
The picture below shows the number of homes around Arnside, Southmead’s shopping centre, compared with the Gloucester Road, one of the most successful shopping streets in the country.
So, how many homes could be built? A scheme being considered by local people in Southmead shows what could be done on Glencoyne Square, the big green square to the north of Arnside shopping centre in the picture.
On just a third of a hectare, around the edge of the park, 150 two bed flats could be built while still retaining a smaller, more user friendly park in the centre. You can see how this proposed change might look in the pictures below.
A large number of these flats would be owned by the local community and rented at affordable rents. Older people who have grown up in Southmead would be able to move into comfortable new flats, so freeing up family homes with the income from the scheme being used to rejuvenate Arnside shopping centre.
The square is close to large employers such as Southmead hospital and bus links are good which removes the need for people to own a car. This proposal will only go ahead if local people back the scheme, so the development must benefit those who live in the area.
The photos below show how the square might look before and after the development.
BEFORE
AFTER
For the sake of all those in Bristol struggling with the housing crisis, let’s hope that our council and local people work together to get more affordable homes built.
Andy Robb is an organiser at No Fixed Abode.