It’s hard to find someone in Bristol lucky enough to have remained untouched by the city’s housing crisis.
From young people who can’t afford to move out of their parents’ home, to families living in cramped and unacceptable slum housing. From young couples knowing they will never save enough to even begin to think about putting a deposit down on their first home, to the people who have rented the same place for years but are now getting the dreaded letter of eviction, or of an eye-watering rent increase that is effectively the same thing.
There are very few people in Bristol for whom the housing crisis doesn’t affect. Maybe if you own your own home mortgage free and have no need to move, with no family members struggling to find somewhere to live, then perhaps the housing crisis affecting everyone else is not an issue for you. Count yourself lucky - you’re in the minority.
Read more: Bristol renters who rely on their parents to afford to live
The percentage of Bristolians who now rent their homes has risen to nearly half - and almost all of them are feeling the squeeze. It could be the uncertainty of not knowing when that rent hike is coming. It could be the knowledge that when it does it means you’re going to have to move out of Bristol altogether.
It could be that the only place you can afford is substandard, with a landlord who doesn’t need to care, or with a letting agent who knows you know they know you could leave the flat with the damp and the broken things and they’d have a queue round the block of people desperate to move in to replace you.
It could be that you are looking for somewhere to rent right now - with a looming tenancy ending, or you’re slipping even further into temporary underbelly of Airbnb or sofa surfing. It could be that that search has to become a full-time job, enduring endless viewings alongside dozens of other hopefuls, knowing that someone will offer to pay more rent per month than you can afford.
No one who has ever experienced the feeling of housing insecurity and impending unknowns about the basic of life - where you live - ever forgets it.
It’s the gnawing knot in the stomach that reminds you day and night that, unless uncertain things fall into place soon, you literally don’t know where you’re going to be living. The feeling of walking the tightrope of life and realising you have no safety net underneath you. The moments when you allow yourself to lose yourself in a TV programme or a night out socialising or a football match and then suddenly you remember the imminent crisis with a sickening shudder.
The rents are rising beyond any kind of sensible level. People are forced to live in substandard homes, knowing that it’s that or nothing.
Bristol rent cap: how much is rent in Bristol and can it be capped?
Read more: Bristol family 'petrified' living in emergency housing
So that is why Bristol Live is now starting the Rent Crisis campaign. We are formally adding our name to those who have gone before us: Acorn, Bristol Cable, Shelter and the Bristol Fair Renting Campaign - to do what we can, and to continue using our voice to highlight the plight of people in low-standard, high-cost housing, and the issues that have created this nightmare scenario, where people are bidding over the odds to rent a bedsit like they at an auction on Homes Under The Hammer.
This campaign will highlight to people who perhaps aren’t aware of the realities of the renting crisis in Bristol just how bad things have got, and the reasons for that. And we will also be looking for solutions.
We will also be highlighting the work of campaigners like the Bristol Fair Renting Campaign.
"Renting in Bristol, I was faced with a choice; hand over the majority of my income for an adequate room, or sacrifice quality for affordable accommodation in order to save,” said Jennifer Little, from the campaign. “Feeling disempowered, I realised that negative experiences are an accepted part of renting in Bristol with most of us suffering in silence.”
“The Bristol Fair Renting Campaign came together because we have all been personally impacted by the broken renting system, and we need to be heard. We launched the Campaign to build solidarity between renters, expose the realities of renting, and demand urgent change.
Kate Bower, another campaigner, explained: “A couple of years ago, I found myself unable to rent a home privately, as landlords and letting agents wouldn’t consider me just because I was on benefits. I had a 20 year history of paying rent on time and good references. I eventually moved into a short-term room in a house that was being put up for sale. Being powerless, not knowing if I would have a home or not, I realised the system was broken.
“Too many private renters in Bristol are living in unstable, poor quality accommodation. Some are facing homelessness or being driven out of the city due to out-of-control rents and discrimination. Rents are rising at twice the rate of wages, driving inequality and meaning even full-time work doesn’t guarantee a secure home,” she added.
Want our best stories with fewer ads and alerts when the biggest news stories drop? Download our app on iPhone or Android
Read more: House price rises 'off the scale' as Londoners move west
Read more: Bristol council chief admits he has 'very little power' to make developers build affordable homes
