18 June 2024IKEA launches a campaign that highlights domestic violence and homelessness

IKEA Australia has partnered with Save the Children Australia to raise awareness of homelessness driven by domestic and family violence through its ‘This is not a home’ campaign at the Tempe store. To spotlight the increasing number of women and children experiencing homelessness, IKEA has launched installations that illustrate the harsh realities faced by those affected by domestic and family violence. These installations aim to convey that everyone deserves a safe, stable, and secure home. Every night, over 120,000 people across the country are without proper shelter, often resorting to living in cars, tents, or on friends’ or relatives’ couches. By bringing these hidden aspects of homelessness into the IKEA Tempe store, customers are confronted with different scenes as they navigate through the store. Upon entry, customers encounter a car being used as a home, followed by a sofa in an IKEA roomset being slept on, and a tent in the IKEA restaurant. These powerful installations reveal the real-life living conditions of thousands of Australians, challenging visitors to rethink what constitutes a home.

Ikea launched earlier in 2023 the project ‘Real Life Roomsets’ in four UK based  IKEA stores. The four roomsets are located in IKEA stores (IKEA Birmingham, IKEA Bristol, IKEA Hammersmith and IKEA Warrington) near cities experiencing some of the worst levels of homelessness in the country*: This campaign comes as part of our long-term partnership with Shelter, demanding for  90,000 social homes to be built a year by 2030 to help address the housing emergency. Additionally, we are also joining Shelter’s campaign to amend the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill with a new  Infrastructure Levy, to ensure all new truly affordable homes are social housing.​​​​​​​ Alongside research that reveals public opinion around the housing emergency in the UK, our new campaign aims to raise awareness of the issue and highlight the real living conditions of those who are forced into temporary accommodation as a result.

According to research commissioned by IKEA, one in five (21%) people in the UK are worried about losing their home, with half (49%) saying if they lost their current home, they would struggle to find somewhere else to live. In the past year in order to keep up with their housing costs, 18% of people in the UK say they have taken on additional work, 17% have skipped meals and a further quarter (25%) would consider it.  One in every 208 people in England is currently experiencing homelessness¹, with thousands more likely to lose their homes by the end of the year as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.