Introducing Harry Gay and our new creative solidarity project

I'm Harry, the new Creative Project Manager at the Museum of Homelessness, and I'm thrilled to be joining the team. Having previously worked with organisations such as The Outside Project and Stonewall Housing - I have almost a decade of work behind me supporting people experiencing homelessness. Alongside this, my work as a DJ and with Queer House Party has given me an insight into working as a creative and managing creative projects and programmes. 

Most recently, I have been focusing on combining these areas of work with Cardboard Citizen’s, where I have helped develop and run a music and event production programme for young people that have experienced homelessness, poverty, and inequity. 

With this experience, I am excited to join MoH and support them in launching our new site in Finsbury Park. This space will not only be a Museum for our collection and work but a space of creativity, recovery, healing, and solidarity.

Harry picketing a homophobic estate agent with The Outside Project (2018)

I am also excited to announce that MoH has been awarded a fund by the Creative Impact Research Centre Europe (CIRCE) to assist us in scaling our creative work with a focus on economies of solidarity and mutual aid. The CIRCE fund will enable us to build upon our existing grassroots networks and communities while also developing creative programmes that will run from our new museum site.

We believe in economic systems that prioritise social justice, solidarity, reciprocity, and sustainability, over individualistic goals such as profit and self-interest. The economies of solidarity approach emphasises the collective benefit, well-being, and empowerment of communities and workers, as opposed to the enrichment of a few individuals or corporations. We are excited to have been awarded this grant which will enable us to scale our work in a way that reflects these values.

As mentioned, the Museum will host various creative community and public programmes - these will mainly focus on supporting people in recovery, people with no recourse to public funds, and homeless families. These creative programmes will not only be based at our new site, but will be integral in the creation and design of the space - building a home alongside our community with healing and recovery at its heart. These programmes will be developed using the CIRCE fund, which will give us the space to trial new ideas and build effective programmes that are sustainable and will continue once the fund has come to an end.

During the pandemic, at a time when many frontline services scaled back their operations, MoH worked with the Homeless Taskforce to provide frontline support for our community. During this period, we developed a rapid response way of working - this meant speaking with the community and developing creative responses to the immediate problems on the ground - getting essentials to people on the street, setting up street legal clinics for EU citizens, and vaccine clinics for people experiencing street homelessness and frontline workers were all part of our work during this period.

Additionally, the Taskforce petitioned the government to open hotels for people during the pandemic, which was ultimately adopted as a national strategy. Through the Taskforce's direct action, around 30,000 people were offered a safe space during the pandemic. This is evidence of how networks of grassroots organisations can not only provide on-the-ground mutual aid but can also advocate for the needs of their communities in an effective way that achieves positive and long-lasting change.

Alongside developing the creative programmes that will support our community - with the CIRCE fund, we will be scaling our work of the current Homeless Taskforce and expanding our reach to work with new partners to build the work already being done by our networks and communities. This fund will allow us to build on our rapid response way of working and to be more flexible in our approach to tackling the most pressing issues faced by our community in a period of economic turmoil and polycrisis. 

We are excited about this new chapter at MoH, the new site, and the opportunity to work alongside our communities in the pursuit of recovery, solidarity, and social justice.