Social Action Documentary Report

Tyree Webster

Task 5
Researching your Issue in Detail

My potential documentary idea is based around the Council’s decision to move homeless families into the Tonbridge House retirement block on Penge Road in South Norwood. There is currently one out of Tonbridge’s 39 flats that is empty, which means that quite a lot of the current residents may have to move to free up space and make way for new residents. This will create friction between the older residents and the Council, and quite possibly the newer residents, but I’ll speak more of that later. This issue and decision can be seen as a good move as it helps with homelessness in the area, but it doesn’t help the fact that most of the residents (who are elderly and disabled) are going to be forced to move out and relocate to a new home, the Council are also giving each resident who moves £4,000 in resettlement costs.

Despite this decision by the Council, I think that this will definitely have some social factors on the area as well as Economical factors. This will create mass friction between the elderly residents of Tonbridge House, the new residents and perhaps, the Council, itself. The Council seem to think that they’re doing an honourable thing by helping those who are less fortunate, they’re also betraying those who have worked very hard in their lives for 40 years and want to live the remainder of their lives in peace and quiet. But, in all fairness, homeless people deserve to live in a warm home, too. It doesn’t matter if it is their fault that they’re homeless, it’s just a matter of ethics and basic human rights. Now, I know I sound like I’m 50/50 on this, but it’s only because I am. I can’t decide on whether I’m for or against the Council’s decision.

This could, and most likely will affect every single current living resident personally. They all have their personal belongings in their individual homes and a lot of them have lived there for over 18 years, and to potentially remove them from a place that is safe and familiar to them is just really wrong, you wouldn’t move a wild animal from its natural habitat, would you? All I'm saying is that these people have dedicated their lives to working and living in the UK, and going by the systems' rules, and this is the retirement they get? It seems that the Council need to sort out their priorities, because they may be helping the many homeless people, but they're creating more problems for the other people they're supposed to be helping at the same time.

Everybody else in the community probably feel the same way as they don't want the area to be affected negatively, even if it is helping people. Wider communities are very important as each and every single person have and/or share similar or opposing views on specific subject matters, be it bad or good. So when it comes to things like this when new people are being moved in a community without the community itself agreeing on it, it would cause some sort of debate amongst the people. It's not like the Council will listen to pleads, though, as at the end of the day if they do choose to move the people in, they'll still most likely get their £242, 000, regardless of what the current residents situation is. It's important that the Council listen to the people they're trying to help, as it would show that they're more competent than we all take them as and they'll actually help the two parties.