Identifying the differences between a house and a home can appear a remedial task, but defining A Home Of One’s Own can recognise how two simple terms undermine social and economic infrastructure across the UK. Hashi Mohamed articulates the anxieties, fears, and misdemeanours challenging contemporary British communities, powerfully critiquing systemic cycles in the housing market whilst empathetically defending the right for everybody to have, and feel, at home.
Following the success of his debut release, People Like Us, Mohamed underscores the fractures in the property market whilst highlighting the social and economic insecurity that housing sectors exploit. Touching on themes of deprivation, discrepancies in support and mental suffocation, the scope of the housing crisis is dissected as an intrinsic factor of emotional wellbeing.
Using London as a focal example of housing instability explains to readers the cracks in temporary accommodation, yet Mohamed reinforces and emphasises that these practices and challenges are echoed in cities around the world. By discussing his personal anecdotes about climbing the property ladder after arriving in London as a child Somalian refugee, strengthened through his critical eye as a barrister, A Home Of One’s Own is resonant with the growing trajectory of financial terror facing many British citizens.
A Home Of One’s Own, Hashi Mohamed (Profile)
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words ALANYA SMITH