Negotiating shared housing, care and disability

How housemates, staff and family members navigate ambivalent atmospheres of home-making

Bibliographic Data

ID7472934
AuthorsAnne Power (0000-0002-3887-1050, University of Southampton, corresponding author), Deborah Chinn (0000-0002-1407-6968, King's College London), Katy Brickley (0000-0002-2741-4436, Bath Spa University), Tony Levitan (0000-0003-1138-2190, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust), Shalim Ali (Expert System (Italy))
Year2026
Volume169
Pages104513
Publication date2026-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104513
OpenAlexW7115169796
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited58

Standards in supported housing often sideline home-making and its relational work. • Focus on self-determination can overlook the atmospheric work that shapes home. • Feeling at home hinges on how staff, families and housemates negotiate power. • Shared-home atmospheres mix emotion and admin, shaping boundaries in daily life. • Positive atmospheres grow when home-making is valued as shared, relational practice. Feeling a sense of home has long been an aspiration by and for people in shared supported housing yet is often overlooked in its provision. In these settings, home is co-constituted through the interactions of housemates, care staff and visiting family members. However, the collective perspectives of these three groups remain underexplored, and this housing context is still marginal within geographies of care and home. This study examines how the atmospheres of such homes are shaped through the socio-material presence and practices of these actors, focusing on adults with intellectual disabilities living in staff-supported shared accommodation in England. Using a novel combination of photovoice with housemates and interviews with care staff and family members, we show how the routines, demands and material presence of staff are integral to home-making. Our findings reveal home-making as an ongoing relational competence involving multiple entanglements that unfold across bedrooms, shared spaces and the wider neighbourhood. We argue that attending to the relational atmospheres of home-making exposes how tensions, dependencies and everyday constraints can unsettle a sense of home, while also indicating how more positive atmospheres might be cultivated for housemates. These insights have relevance beyond this group, offering direction for broader work on how a sense of home is relationally made. Accessible Summary. • Feeling at home is often ignored for people in supported living. • We found ways of home-making that were supported by staff and family. • Things often got in the way of home-making such as staff taking shortcuts. • We show how home-making can take place but needs to be given more priority

Accommodation · Ambivalence · Competence (human resources · Context (archaeology · Feeling · Focus group · Negotiation · Perception · Disability Rights and Representation · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Homelessness and Social Issues