The invisible gap: How the cost of living crisis is affecting people in Bristol

It’s a strange situation as people queue for Pret sandwiches in the rain while others buy the same items for full price just down the road.

Some in the queue are selective. “Have you got a cheese sandwich today?” One person asks. Another favours chicken.

Julie and her team from BOSH come to St James Park in central Bristol every Saturday to deliver breakfast to people experiencing homelessness in the city.

Although the majority of BOSH’s work is advocacy and support, they have found that their services are being stretched and the services required of them are changing under the cost of living crisis.

This is being felt across Bristol’s food banks and homelessness charities, which are experiencing similar impacts of the cost of living crisis.

Most notably, the demand is increasing, the cost of running the charity is rising and the demographic is changing.

But there is also a hidden impact, with the current crisis seeing more previously stable families falling between the cracks, as they struggle to navigate a strained benefit system, an inaccessible housing market and skyrocketing energy bills.

The current crisis seeing more previously stable families falling between the cracks – photo: Mia Vines Booth

Stretched services
Julie’s team at BOSH, who act as an outreach service for people experiencing homelessness in Bristol, are helping those in temporary accommodation and subsidised housing with their electricity and gas, as well as operating their usual services.

“People who are in accommodation who hadn’t needed to use the service are now coming back out because of the cost of living crisis – they just can’t afford to feed themselves,” says Julie.

“I have to be very clear and stick to my ethos of working with the homeless.”

In BOSH’s case, ‘homelessness’ doesn’t just mean street homelessness, or rough sleepers. It can mean people who are vulnerably-housed, such as those living in temporary accommodation or hostels.

In one case, a young woman was taken to hospital unwell after her neighbours alerted the emergency services. She had been without electricity for days and wasn’t able to charge her mobile phone. She also couldn’t use her nebuliser because she wasn’t able to plug it in.

“She couldn’t afford electricity and she couldn’t get out to see me or anyone else,” says Julie.

“I think we will see more and more cases like this, where people are suffering such extreme poverty that they are sitting for days without electricity or don’t use their cooker or don’t use the fridge because they are too scared of the cost.”

“Sometimes, this is the only food they’re having,” Julie says, gesturing to the tables of sandwiches laid out in the park.

“Food poverty is affecting everyone. It really is affecting people from all walks of life now. It’s not just rough sleepers or people on benefits.”

Recognising the scale of the problem, Bristol City Council declared a cost of living crisis earlier this month, committing to a range of measures designed to ease the burden for people affected.

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Read more: Support for those hit hardest as council declares cost of living crisis

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A knock-on effect
Julie does believe that Bristol is one of the best cities in the UK for services, but argues they are not always as joined-up as they could be.

Another charity, Caring in Bristol, which aims to tackle the link between food poverty and homelessness, has also found that the demographic of their clients are increasingly changing.

Caring in Bristol’s model is different to the city’s food banks, explains Alv, the organisation’s storytelling coordinator.

Their ‘food club’ model is a ‘subscription’ model where members pay £3.50 each week to access a selection of goods from different categories, that can sometimes add up to £20 worth of groceries.

Whilst the charity’s focus is traditionally on moving people away from the threat of homelessness, they are finding that they are supporting more people who are struggling to pay for shopping, electricity and gas bills.

“The money has got to come from somewhere,” says Alv. “And it tends to come from rent.”

The cost of living crisis has led to more people moving closer to rent arrears, eviction and homelessness.

“The cost of living adds to the pressure – if people have been homeless and have just established themselves in a tenancy, food costs will mean that their situation is really pressurised,” Alv continues.

Alv spoke to someone recently who found themselves in rent arrears because of an error in the benefit system. They serviced the debt by using up a third of their income to pay off their rent arrears, leaving the bare minimum for food and warmth.

The cost of living crisis has led to more people moving closer to rent arrears, eviction and homelessness – photo: Caring in Bristol

One of Caring in Bristol’s food bank locations is stationed in Hartcliffe. Since 2014, this has been one of the most deprived of Bristol’s three “food deserts”, according to research conducted by Kellogg’s.

A “food desert” is where an area has two or fewer supermarkets in their catchment area. An ordinary area has anywhere between five and seven supermarkets.

Food deserts also take into consideration how accessible, affordable and diverse different supermarkets are. For example, an area may have a large number of corner shops, but they may be more expensive and have a less diverse range of items.

This is especially difficult for communities, where getting culturally-appropriate food is a daily challenge.

People are struggling to pay their bills and have little or nothing left to buy food – photo: Caring in Bristol

Feed the Homeless, a charity that provides hot food and drink twice a week from the Quakers Meeting Hall in St Paul’s, is also struggling with the effects of the cost of living crisis.

Joanna, one of the organisers from the charity, said the crisis has had multifaceted implications for her organisation.

For one, increased fuel prices have made it more expensive to run their mobile foodbank van.

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Joanna also worries about Bristol’s clean air zone, which comes into play in November. Under the measures, non-compliant vehicles will be charged to enter an area that covers the city centre, a portion of Old Market and just south of the river.

Volunteers who drive in could also be subject to the charge and Joanna argues there needed to be exemptions for charities like Feeding the Homeless to still operate across Bristol.

The council has said there is support available to help charities,  organisations and individuals make the changes necessary but details on how many have taken up the help available are not yet available.

The invisible gap

The demographic of people in need of support is also changing.

“Demands are very high and increasing, we regularly see over 100 people on Sunday night and not all of them are homeless,” says Joanna.

“We don’t just feed street homeless, we have a lot of people that come from temporary accommodation or have accommodation but just can’t make ends meet. We’ve recently seen families come to us because they are at a point where they’ve got no food.

“You’ve got people that are settled in in their homes, you’ve got people that are literally on the streets, and they you’ve got this group in the middle of people that are either in hostels, or temporary accommodation, or sofa surfing, who are almost invisible.

“And then you’ve got people that have been rehoused but in such a dire financial situation, it’s going to take them years to get on their feet even if they’ve got no issues at all.

“To see that concentration of people that use our service, it’s quite surprising. It’s quite an eye opener.”

Charities and food banks in Bristol are seeing rising demands and changing demographics – photo: Mia Vines Booth

Data from The Trussell Trust found that from April 2021 to March 2022, there was a 14 per cent increase in food parcels distributed across the UK compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Food charities in Bristol are also facing a 30 per cent rise in demand this year, according to a report by the BBC.

Hidden impacts

It’s not just service-users affected by the cost of living crisis.

Joanna says the number of people able to cook for her organisation is decreasing due to the increase in food prices and gas bills, with members of the team “dropping off” because they can’t afford to volunteer anymore.

The charity’s rent at the Quakers Meeting Hall, from which they operate their hot meals service twice a week, is increasing.

Main photo: Caring in Bristol 

Read more: How women bear the brunt of the cost of living crisis

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