“Creativity thrives when we feel safe”: How is the rental crisis affecting creative practices?

As the cost of living crisis continues, one of the many challenges to arise is the lack of affordable space. Spikes in rents; dire living situations; ignored SpareRoom messages; landlords selling up or moving back into their rental properties – it feels like everyone is currently looking for somewhere to rent, and many of them aren’t having any luck.

Space is an important part of the creative process. A quiet nook free of distractions can help with focus and concentration, while larger, more communal areas are ideal for those seeking to collaborate or build at scale. Space is vital for fuelling creativity and the ability to produce work you’re passionate about. Without studios – let alone somewhere healthy, warm, and mould and mouse-free to lay your head at night – the creative industry at large will be at breaking point. So, what happens when creatives can’t rent a studio or a place to live? What if they’re having to relocate due to increasing costs? And what about the endless hours spent trawling through housing ads, only to be met with silence? What happens when there’s nowhere to go?

To find out what the situation is like in the UK, we’ve turned to five creatives to hear about their experiences. Of course, there are many in this country whose experiences of the housing and cost-of-living crises are unimaginably awful; this small pool is not intended to be a comprehensive survey. Yet it’s important that we understand the effect that the rental crisis is having particularly on emerging creatives starting to build their careers and their creative practices as well.

Kohenoor Kamal, a Liverpool-based illustrator, feels like she’s had one of the “weirder experiences”, having moved back into her childhood home after her tenancy ended. It all started when the pandemic hit and Kohenoor was in her third year at university in Leeds. Her housemates fled back home due to the impending lockdown restrictions, but she had to stay put. “I had no way of moving back home as no one in my family had a car at the time and I was hours away from home,” she says. “As the months went on, I was struggling for avenues in terms of my finances. My parents were on low incomes and didn’t have the means to support me and it felt like I was in a bit of a limbo.”

boihugo secured a place to live after posting a flat-hunting ad with an introduction on Instagram, which was picked up by friends of mutual friends. Without the support from those closest to them while searching for somewhere to live, boihugo admits that they would have struggled. “I don’t know how I could have mentally gone through all that by myself,” they say. It also had a large impact on their artistic practice. “Creativity thrives when we feel safe, and the thought of having nowhere to live is detrimental to it.” For comparison, boihugo lived in a nice, affordable flat in Shanghai and didn’t move for three years; they had time to read, imagine and let their mind wander. In London, boihugo’s rental experiences have been void of anything like this. “A precarious living situation and the scary hunting process forced me to be in a constant exhausting loop of looking, being hopeful, being disappointed, looking again and being desperate,” they say.

To help with the increasing costs, Tove has taken on a job in an IT firm – but it’s two sides of the same coin. “I’m left feeling drained at the end of the day and it doesn’t really fulfil me creatively,” she says, “although I do think there can be a benefit to keeping your art and your work separate.” Tais, on the other hand, has considered moving from London to somewhere more affordable, but the risks are too high in terms of travel expenses and accommodation – “I have seen cases of friends who have moved to another country or further away and haven’t been able to continue their practice the same way as before,” she says. For now, finding like-minded people to share a studio with will be a more suitable alternative and a means of keeping that creative spark lit. “I find my practice doesn’t come naturally to me anymore, but I’m determined to keep going with it however I can.”

If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it’s knowing that you’re not alone. “We are all in this together,” says boihugo. “You are good enough and deserve somewhere nice to live. It is not our fault and the problem really is structural.” Fortunately, our interviewees currently have somewhere safe to stay, yet a large portion of the UK are living in homes that are simply not fit for purpose. It’s within our basic rights to be granted heated and healthy accommodation, but the supply of rental properties is dwindling, the cost of living is rising and many tenants are living in fear of eviction. The rental market is broken. We need rent caps, a modern tenancy system that’s fair and just, and reforms that will support and protect tenants. Without urgent action, artists will soon be pushed out of the UK’s cities and towns in an exodus of unaffordability. We all want to live somewhere that’s culturally rich and diverse, brimming with ideas and creative people – however, the way things are going, we could be losing all of that.

For those experiencing similar issues to the creatives featured here, there are a handful of tenants unions, which offer advice and help renters deal with problems related to bad landlords, repairs and more – like London Renters Union, Greater Manchester Tenants Union and Tenants Union UK. For those living in England, Shelter also provides housing advice and support with evictions and private renting.