Homelessness

Reading: Valentine Ch 3:

What is Homelessness? Absence of a place to sleep, receive mail? Continuum: –homed … inadequately housed…..homeless?

What is Homelessness? Official homeless: –those so designated by the state –single homeless: no priority for social housing hidden homeless: access to housing precarious or unstable Protohomeless: at risk of homelessness

How many homeless? Depends on definitions USA 1999: –700,000 per night –2 million each year –12 million during lifetime

How many homeless? Toronto: –Social housing waiting list 20,000+ –2000 in shelters –200 on streets?

What is Homelessness? An urban problem? An inner city problem? –Many suburbanites seem to think so Also found in rural areas

Geography of the Homeless Drift: –Homeless originate in one place, congregate in another –Destitute from rural, northern & eastern Canada congregate in Toronto seeking work and support services “Drift” argument used to justify moving the homeless to other communities –Alberta giving one-way bus tickets to Toronto?

Deserving and Undeserving Prevailing value system finds some more worthy of sympathy than others –More favoured homeless: youth, females, the sane, families, the non-addicted –Less favoured: seniors, men, the insane, the addicted –Issue of race? Many of Toronto’s homeless are aboriginal.

Causes of Homelessness Multiple factors, complex Working on multiple scales –National & international –Local –Personal

Causes of Homelessness National & international scale: –General effect of economic change from a Fordist economy to Post-Fordism

Fordism & Post-Fordism Fordism: MDCs characterised by –assembly-line mass production, high wages, stable employment Post-Fordism: –MDCs: shifts to services, manufacturing shifts to LDCs –MDCs: increasing contrasts of wealth, reduced wages and unstable work for the unskilled

Two polarities Prosperity for key workers –possess social, technical skills –high wages, good benefits, steady work Poverty for the unskilled, less-educated –low-wages, few benefits, unstable work

Causes of Homelessness Poverty & dislocation as people shaken out of their traditional roles in the workforce –Increase in part-time, casual and contract work –Erosion of the welfare state: justified by economic restructuring –Transfer of welfare responsibilities from taxpayer to charities and families

Causes of Homelessness National & Local scale: –Demographic shifts increase demand for housing in the 1980s-1990s –increase in the numbers seeking housing –dramatic increase in house prices –significant increase in numbers of small households older people

Causes of Homelessness Neo-liberal economic restructuring reduces public funding for social housing

Causes of Homelessness Gentrification destroying the supply of cheap inner-city housing

Causes of Homelessness 1970s policy of “deinstitutionalization” –close big, centralised mental-health facilities –return the mentally-ill “to the community” –Justified by 1970s psychiatry –Without funding and supervision led to “dumping” the mentally ill into low-rent neighbourhoods already packed with other needy people.

Homelessness in GTA : 43% increase in households spending 50% or more on housing in GTA (Canadian Council on Social Development Nov 2002).

Causes of Homelessness Individualization: –Social shift away from group conformity toward individual self-expression –Benefit: increased personal freedom –Risk: increased social atomization

Experience of Homelessness Varied Hardships Community Adaptation Vulnerability

Containment Keep the bums out: –oppose homeless shelters, social service facilities which will “attract” the socially needy –easier policy for more affluent communities

Los Angeles Strategy of containment –city and police encourage homeless to congregate in Skid Row –move them on elsewhere

Los Angeles New Downtown: –Parkettes, benches, sidewalks encourage the monied to linger. Skid Row –Bum-proof benches, bag lady- proof garbage containers, park sprinklers, police encourage people to “move along”.

Mike Davis: Fortress LA

Gated Communities

Prison? Fortress? Police Station?

Goldwyn Public Library, Hollywood

Raising funds for the Popesquat in Toronto

Tent City

Politics: OCAP campaigns for homeless? OCAP uses homeless issue for own ends? –Popesquat started by OCAP –Homeless move out before police raid, OCAP moves in –ritual confrontations with police?