Throughout this book I have discussed the many problems facing the people who live in this neighbourhood, how precarious their lives are, and also how resilient they have become, using their community networks to find value for themselves, their families and their neighbourhood. However, I have also noted the consequences for communities, families and individuals who live with such constant instability. What happens to such communities when they live on the tightrope, when any wobble can knock them off, unbalance them or frighten them? Changes in Housing Benefit can render them homeless. Work and employment can move from neighbourhoods with little notice – in the space of only a few years whole sectors of industry can close and move on to another region or country. And decisions made for you and about you can mean new people move into your neighbourhood who are also vulnerable, who you do not know, and who do not understand. Consequently, and because of this constant state of precariousness, community networks become close; as people rely on each other and the neighbourhood for some stability, they become very inward-looking, and fear what is outside of the neighbourhood.

These people experience institutionalised stigmatisation and the instability of constantly changing social policy that always seems to be aimed at them, leaving them with little confidence that they are valuable or valued in wider society. Accordingly, this level of instability, lack of confidence and fear can lead to negative practices – people become angry and sometimes aggressive. The frustration of everyday life here in St Ann’s can be seen and witnessed on the streets and in the community centre, where there may be arguments and fights between residents. In the doctors surgery and the housing office, in local shops and at local schools, you can often hear the desperate frustration that manifests itself into shouting and raised voices, sometimes between queuing residents, and sometimes with those who work in these places. Although poor communities can be both a place of safety and a place where you can be valued, as I have shown in earlier chapters, they can also be a pressure cooker, filled with fear, anger, desperation and fragility. And a dangerous mix of inequality and lack of social justice kept in small spaces, without routes in or out, may sometimes explode.