housing and homelessness

Two individuals smiling at the camera, standing close together. One is wearing a 'Bristol Cable' branded T-shirt and the other a plain green T-shirt. The text 'PEOPLE JUST DO SOMETHING' is displayed across the front. In the background is a grainy image of high-rise buildings.

People Just Do Something

Listen: People Just Do Something – Veronica Wignall on Bristol’s billboards and reclaiming public spaces

Billboards, inequality, and the corporations selling us problems they helped create.

Bristol council paying huge sums of money to rent homes from banned landlord

Celebrating 30 years of the Base for Anarchy and Solidarity in Easton (BASE)

A photograph of terraced housing and a harbour from photograph of Bristol in 1880.

People's History

How a 19th-century journalist revealed the extent of poverty in Victorian Bristol

A series of newspaper articles published in 1883 give us a fascinating insight into working-class Bristolian life at a time of severe economic depression. It was the first real instance of investigative reporting in the city.

Illustration of a three tower blocks held by rope falling on three people's heads, on a pink background

Reports

As Bristol battles to build affordable housing, developers are still gaming the system

A man in a dark jacket stands in front of an overgrown Family Caring Centre sign, surrounded by trees and branches.

Area in Focus

‘South Bristol loses again’: new race to save athletics track

Listen: Bristol Unpacked, with former Lord Mayor Paul Goggin on homelessness, mental health and the struggle for south Bristol votes

'It's been eventful', says Paul Goggin, of a life that has featured both rough sleeping and local politics. He joins Neil Maggs to talk housing, faith, and whether Labour should fear Reform in wards like Hartcliffe and Withywood.

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with Amanda Sharman on leading the charge for boat-dwellers’ rights

Who are the boat-dwellers living around Bristol's harbour, and why have they been at loggerheads with Bristol City Council? Neil Maggs chats to Bristol Boaters' Community Association co-chair Amanda Sharman to find out.

One of Bristol’s worst ‘eyesore’ buildings has partially collapsed. What is the council doing about it?

The roof of a building owned by a notorious Bristol landlord has caved in, after years of attempts to force him to clean it up.

Enduring trauma, and a struggle for justice: one year on from the Barton House high-rise evacuation

On 14 November 2023 an east Bristol tower block was evacuated over fears it could collapse, making national news. A year on, residents tell the Cable about the disruption to their lives, the ongoing impact on their wellbeing and their children's – and how a community has been left traumatised.

Council still hounding people with bailiffs after ‘ethical’ approach promise

The Cable has uncovered evidence Bristol City Council is referring thousands of council tax debts to enforcement agencies despite a stated policy to do so only as a last resort.

‘Bristol’s council housing failings are shocking – but are just the tip of a massive national iceberg’

Decades of underinvestment in council homes by central government have led to unacceptable living standards for tenants, in our city and across the country. A national solution is needed.