John Watts is a writer and campaigner on housing rights. He provoked us to think about the nature of involuntary disappearance, and below are impressions emerging from our conversation.
John Watts: "I have a lot of first-hand experience of homeless, so much so, that I have been made a Trustee for St Mungos, the first with lived experience. I’m used to being interviewed within all aspects of media, have made speeches in Parliament and even made a submission to the UN on the extreme poverty of homelessness in Britain. Also, I have done quite a bit of stage work with Young Vic, Globe and Cardboard Citizens of course.
"I also want to add, on closer examination of your project, is what I call the hidden homeless, the sofa surfers and the ghosts, those that sleep on the night buses and tubes, the disappeared. Here is a simple example: did you know that half the rough sleepers are in employment? Yes, the working homeless, and they disappear every time they leave work. And with the introduction of universal credit and the forced migration on to the internet, if you don’t migrate, you have disappeared from the system. Involuntary disappearance - you may want a look at this as well as those that choose to disappear, some of us have no choice but to become living ghosts. Hope this is of some help."
What is the degree of fluidity required in order to survive in this world?
What is power, and how can we redistribute it?
With universal credit now introduced everyone needs to have a bank account, which means that surveillance mechanisms are gaining more and more power and further underline the realisation that we can no longer live without a trace, at least in our organised and advanced societies. This is set against a system in which necessary forms and information are sent but never arrive at their destinations, undoing people's rights to housing, welfare and different forms of support. The system surveys, but also chooses when to 'un-see' as is convenient to the state's needs. People are ensnared, only to be dropped through the net, unexpectedly.
Space and housing in the UK is almost reminiscent of forms of slavery, with people working around the clock just to pay their rent. As to people’s agency and values, there is no choice really and the turning points in someone’s life that may ignite a sense of urgency are credited to pure serendipity. Stories have disappeared of those who are made to be marginalized because they are not accepted.
A state of a permanent revolution; the moment you have a structure, tear it down. In terms of power nothing is changing; imperial divide and rule; the more you isolate an individual, the more you make them disappear. We don't have the right institutions in place; what we call democracy is not fit for purpose; we need to find new ways of organising.
With thanks to John and Cardboard Citizens for putting us in touch.