Homelessness and Housing Stress

Neal Haslem is Interim Associate Dean of the Communication Design discipline at RMIT School of Design. Neal is a communication designer, design educator and a practice-led researcher into communication design. Neal’s research lies in the intersection of design practice, 'community’ and the intersubjective action with which design reveals and actualises possible futures. Since 2012, Neal has collaborated with Keely Macarow and Marcus Knutagård on manifestos, publications, conferences, and exhibitions advancing the concept of Homefullness.Marcus Knutagård is a Professor and Head of Department at Malmö University, Sweden. His work integrates research and practice, focusing on housing, homelessness, social policy, and welfare systems. His research frequently highlights the intersection of housing rights and social justice, as well as innovative approaches for addressing homelessness. Since 2012, Professor Knutagård has collaborated with Keely Macarow and Neal Haslem on manifestos, publications, conferences, and exhibitions advancing the concept of Homefullness.Keely Macarow is an Associate Professor in the School of Art, RMIT University (Naarm/Melbourne) who lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Victoria/Australia). Keely uses text, artworks, design artefacts and exhibitions to explore concerns around care, housing, refugees, health, the climate emergency and her family. She has collaborated with Neal Haslem and Marcus Knutgard since 2012 on manifestos, publications, symposia and exhibitions to advocate for Homefullness.

“Acts of Homefullness offers valuable and inspiring perspectives on the complex and interconnected nature of homes, homelessness, migration, care, kinship and their politics. Combining creative experimentation and analysis, including perspectives from architects, activists, artists, social workers and others, it offers new insights along with potential responses and interventions to address inequity in global housing, relevant too to other urgent challenges facing places and communities.”Lucy Kimbell, Professor of Contemporary Design Practices, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK“Acts of Homefullness is a deeply humane and timely collection. It refuses narratives of blame and scarcity, centering care, relational responsibility, and lived experience as foundations of housing justice. Through interdisciplinary voices and acts of resistance, the book reframes home as a fundamental human right and shared ethical commitment. It offers a hope-full invitation to imagine and practice forms of belonging that honor dignity, interdependence, and our collective responsibility to one another.”Rachael Dietkus, LCSW, Founder of Social Workers Who Design, Illinois, US“What seems intractable is so only from existing ways of looking. Situations, especially ones that are intolerable, like people subject to housing stress or people not allowed to feel at home where they are, can always be reframed despite their urgency. This collection demonstrates the loosening power of design interventions; communicative acts of design in practice and theory, that open up transition pathways out of the seemingly intractable. In doing so, they also sketch out a new political home for design.”Cameron Tonkinwise, Professor of Design Studies, University of Technology Sydney, AU“This interesting and important new edited collection questions the ways in which we define and respond to states of homelessness as a primarily physical experience, the absence of conventional living arrangements in conventional housing and explores the social, cultural and wider dimensions of what we mean by ‘home’. Homefullness, as a concept and as a philosophy raises important questions about how we currently think about and respond to housing exclusion and homelessness.”Nicholas Pleace, Professor of Housing and Society, University of York, UK

• Introduction 1.Towards Homefullness Part 1: Questioning Housing 2.Ore Sy Guazu: Inhabiting dispossession – the Guarani Oga Guazu and its tale of belonging 3.Housing Begins With a Hug: Homefullness on a refugee rescue ship 4.Lone Voices in the Desert: The politicisation of housing discourse in public space 5.From Ugly to Beautiful: On homelessness and the secret art of being with others Part 2: Homes and Homefullness 6.De(sign)ing Home 7.Being Homeless and Becoming Homefull: Homefullness as an ontological state 8.Pandemic Play: Making home through lockdown and animal crossing – new horizons 9.Altered Spaces, Relationships and Identities: Supporting people experiencing mental distress in the home 10.In Search of Homefull Neighborhoods: Safety and safeness beyond the home Part 3: Communities of Possibility 11.Homefullness, design and problem care 12.Lessons From the Movements: Small acts of Homefull resistance 13.Embracing Complexity: A framework for creating from, with and as in homelessness contexts 14.EmpowerHER map of the city: Centring the lived experience of women in transition and ‘homefree’ affective perspectives on public space 15.Things Will Be Different: A relational documentary of resistance in the shadow of displacement Part 4: Opportunities for Change 16.Illusionary Homefullness 17.It Is All About George: Acts of Homefullness 18.The Possibility of Other, Better Worlds: Single mother organising as acts of Homefullness 19.Undesigning: Design at the end of the world Conclusion 20.Homefullness Manifesto: Every home needs a safe homeland