EOC(3)-MW ADEV 007

Equality of Opportunity Committee

Inquiry into Migrant Workers

Additional Evidence From Shelter Cymru Images Policy

Shelter Cymru wants all people in Wales to have a decent home. We believe this is because a home is a fundamental right and essential to the health and well-being of people and communities.  

The majority of people in Wales have a vision of homelessness which is of street homeless people, very shabbily dressed, drunk or on drugs. The general public naturally cannot identify with these individuals.

This is the acute end of the homelessness problem and the majority of people who experience homelessness are much further down the crisis scale - young people "sofa surfing” or staying with friends; families living in bed and breakfast accommodation on a temporary basis while waiting for the council to re-house them.

These people are less visible to the general public who will be generally unaware of their situation. These are people who they will more readily identify with, because often the homeless people have a story they can relate to, such as: the young person has had a row with their parents and has been kicked out so is staying with friends; the father of the family became ill and lost his job and then got behind with mortgage payments and the house was repossessed.

At Shelter Cymru, we work with people in housing need and deal with all aspects of homelessness and bad housing. Part of our mission is to break down barriers for people in need and raise awareness of the plight of people who do not have a suitable home.

We therefore adopted an inclusive approach to our image policy.

In Wales, we decided that we wanted people to see pictures of people who look just like themselves, to reinforce the message that anyone can experience homelessness. The images are always non threatening and often contain children as well. We do not use images of poor housing conditions unless it is particularly suitable for the specific publication. We concentrate on the positive and hopeful.

Our sister charity in England, Shelter, has a more aggressive policy and uses shock tactics in its imagery. We have reviewed our policy several times and still feel that this is the right approach for the market in Wales.

See the library on our website for examples of publications. www.sheltercymru.org.uk/shelter/home/library.asp