“I still cry when I think about what it was like to be homeless in Bristol”

When Amanda Wall and her two children were evicted from their home, the city council told her she would have to spend a week in temporary housing.

But the grueling weeks passed, and instead of finding a permanent home for them, they were housed in eleven different hotels within seven weeks.

Her children suffered “breakdowns” and her “dignity was destroyed” as she also had to deal with people’s negative perceptions of her.

“There are so many reasons why you could become homeless, but people automatically think the worst of you.

“The stigma is the biggest problem. Being homeless doesn’t stop you from doing anything,” she said.

When this happened in the summer of 2022, the council apologized for them “bad experience” and acknowledged that some things had gone wrong. They added that “it won’t happen again”.

But the 52-year-old has now used this “frustrating and demoralising” experience to launch an inspiring new project to help other homeless people.

During their stay in the hotels, Ms. Wall and her children had to contend with noise and disturbances from other guests.

They were also housed far away from their children’s school, which meant their daily lives involved “ridiculous” costs and long bus rides.

“The way (Bristol City Council) handled the matter was not personal because they are under a lot of pressure.

“I understand that, but it had a huge impact on the children,” she said.

A Bristol City Council spokesman said the city was still “in the grip of a housing crisis” and growing demand for housing combined with rising costs was driving many households into homelessness.

The spokesman said: “This is putting greater pressure on the availability of transitional accommodation in the city, which is itself becoming increasingly expensive to provide.”

“This pressure means the council often has to resort to hotels and locally purchased accommodation to support vulnerable households.

“These approaches can sometimes lead to unstable accommodation and high costs – two outcomes that benefit neither households nor the agency.”

Before her eviction, Ms Wall lived in “terrible” accommodation with rats, mold and a carbon monoxide leak.

The “appalling” conditions left her and her children frequently ill and left them all with long-term psychological damage.

Ms Wall added that the council had “done what was fundamentally necessary” but said her lack of income and the impact on the children’s lives had not been sufficiently considered.

“I look back and wonder how we did it?” she said.

She worked as a singer and performer and taught music to children, but when the pandemic began, her career came to a halt.

While living between hotels, Ms. Wall devoted herself to her passion and wrote a song “to try to survive the whole thing.”

“It was almost like therapy,” she said.

At that time, she had no intention of sharing her creation outside of her four walls.

During this time, in order to “stay sharp,” she also resumed her education and enrolled in an MA course at the dBs Institute, a college for people who want to take courses in music production, game design and development.

She said dBs helped her “get back on track.”

“I will be forever grateful for that,” she added.

When she began her studies in the city, a lecturer told her about artists who used their personal pain and negative experiences to bring about change and evoke emotions.

“I knew I wanted to do a project to show people what it feels like to be homeless and what hope there might be for the future,” she said.

This lesson inspired her to found FEAR – For Families Emergency Accommodation Rehabilitation – to get people thinking about the problem of homelessness.

The multimedia project consists of soundscapes with verbatim speeches, music, atmospheric sounds and projections of different experiences of Ms. Wall and other people who are or have been affected by homelessness.

“It has grown from a small piecework structure created in a hotel room to a huge project,” she said.

“We built a community with the people we were homeless with so that we could all get through the situations we found ourselves in.

“FEAR is about community, unity, solidarity, having a voice and acceptance.

“Without everyone’s commitment, it wouldn’t be as good,” said Ms. Wall.

She added that it was “very real” and “quite hard” to listen to.

“I cried a few times.

“I listen to parts of it and I think, I remember it and I think of the people who are going through this right now. It’s so preventable,” she said.

Over the last two years, Mrs Wall has rebuilt her life and now lives in Southmead.

She completed her studies this summer and celebrated her graduation with an exhibition on the theme of FEAR at the university.

Now Ms Wall is focusing her efforts on bringing the project to a wider audience, increasing pressure on those with the power to make change and raising awareness of the issue.

“I want to keep the conversation going and make a difference.

“I want people to walk away and ask themselves, ‘Was that real?’

“I want a shock factor. I want people to feel that burden,” Ms. Wall said.

She plans to expand the project first in Bristol and then elsewhere. The proceeds from the tickets will be donated to the homeless charity Shelter.

Ms. Wall thanked the organization for doing “so much” for her when she needed help.

To give something back, she supported Shelter’s ‘This Is Not A Home’ campaign last year, calling on the previous Conservative government to defund housing benefits and build safer social housing.

In February 2023, she travelled to Downing Street with representatives from the charity to present the campaign, which had collected over 9,000 signatures.

“The whole system is completely broken,” she said.

“It spans the entire nation and is merciless.”

A Bristol City Council spokesman added: “Tackling homelessness is one of the council’s highest priorities.”

“This is a major challenge and requires a number of different solutions.

“We remain committed to finding solutions within the Council’s capabilities, including reducing the use of temporary accommodation.”