Does the room have furniture? Socio-material vulnerability for tenants in shared room housing, Sydney

Abstract

This paper contributes to the socio-material vulnerability concept by unpacking the ways shared housing spaces such as bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms are configured and experienced. Drawing on an online survey (n = 103) and interviews (n = 35) with tenants living in shared room housing in Sydney, Australia, the study responds to research gaps how socio-material configurations in precarious rental housing forms respond to tenants’ needs and living experiences. Shared room housing emerges as a survival strategy for low-income and marginalised tenants, including international migrants, in Sydney’s expensive housing market. Nonetheless, living in shared room housing is difficult. Tenants experience various socio-material constraints and disruptions, that affect their daily routines and well-being. These tenants adapt individual and collective coping strategies involving negotiation of material, social and emotional aspects of their shared lives. Yet the underlying vulnerability to uncertain and poor living conditions persists, along with health and safety risks. Understanding these urban spaces and tenants’ resilience is important for appropriate policy response.