Homelessness

Research, Practice, and Policy

S. P. K. Jena

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000054484
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Urban Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book provides insights into the experiences of 'homelessness', while exploring its psychological and socio-economic dimensions. Hunger, addiction, and disability, which often accompany homelessness, are brought into focus and discussed within the frameworks of promoting social welfare and enabling human capability in this volume.

Based on the author's ethnographic and quantitative research on homeless families living on the streets of Delhi, this book identifies some of the most acute problems associated with homelessness. It analyzes the causes of homelessness and draws connections between social bonds and family, socio-economic status, and psychopathology. It also includes personal accounts of hardship and trauma which quantify the systematic discrimination and marginalization that people living on the streets face.

The volume offers policy recommendations to protect the right to self-determination, dignity, and self-efficacy of the homeless and help rehabilitate them. It will be a useful guide for students and researchers of social sciences specializing in psychology, sociology, economics, and development studies. The book will also be of interest to mental health professionals and policy-makers in designing effective strategies.

Part I
Issues and problems

1 Homelessness

A conceptual analysis

Two most vexing issues of our time that has attracted considerable attention and discourse are ‘home’ and ‘homelessness’. The problems of homelessness in the global scenario arise on many accounts: economic migration, civil war, natural disaster, communal riots, developmental projects, and so on. Before we delve into the larger issues of research, policies, and practices, there is a need for understanding of the construct.

Over the past two decades, there has been an exciting and welcome move to respond to the problems of the homeless people encompassing various perspectives. The field is exciting. Within the short period, it has been possible to generate a great variety of scholarly work reflecting the researchers’ and policymakers’ understandings about its conceptual and normative challenges (e.g., Mayock, Parker, and Murphy, 2014). Despite shortcomings, this has decidedly contributed to our thinking, and responding to this global challenge, therefore, a welcome move.

The boundaries of the world encircle us from the moment we are born, but it is the smaller world of our families where we first begin to learn how to get along in a larger world. That is what makes home such a special place to live (Brown, 1961). Home can have simultaneous meaning. It can flood the imagination with geographic, emotional, economic, historical, cultural, poetic, and recreational connotations – a miniature world which nurtures basic human relationships – empathy, attachment, and bonding. This attachment extends to humanity. In most cultures, life-long intimate affiliations with the family are valued and actively encouraged and the home environment orchestrates this closeness. Nowadays, conscious effort is made by the architects and designers to increase the ‘homeliness’ in built environment. Conscious effort is made to facilitate better human interaction. The meaning people attach to their environment is crucial for their understanding of self and others and overall well-being. Thus, home or in essence, the psychological feeling of homeliness occupies a very special position in human development. Identification with one’s home and locality is indisputably evident in every individual and especially those who are homeless and separated from their homes or countries of origin. Because of differences in culture, attitude, and personalities, the meaning attached to ‘homelessness’ differs. This is a central issue in cultural geography. As a generator of cultural beliefs, attitudes, and interpersonal skills, home has an immense role in design of the culture.

The desire for a home, in fact, stems from a desire for security and belonging (Brah, 2004). It is closely connected with one’s feeling of identity. The experience of home may be either lived or imagined (Ahmed, 2000). The lived experience of home creates a desire to go back to one’s own home, whereas imagination creates longing or desire to have a home of one’s own. Its manifestations are seen differently in different contexts of people and places (Blunt and Dowling, 2006). Home provides comfort and ontological security (Fortier, 2003), which is crucial for human development (Taylor, 2013). The basic skills for adaptation in home setting are generalized to the society as we start interacting with others, outside the home. Thus, providing housing facilities to the citizens not only serves a utilitarian purpose but is also considered as a symbol of the value cherished by the society. It is linked with human development and consequently, the productivity.

Here, it is important to distinguish between the concepts of ‘home’ and ‘house’. Although in terms of ownership, both terms are treated as synonymous, home is distinguished from house largely by its ‘meaning’ dimension. The former is primarily characterized by an emotional relationship, whereas the later, by its physical dimensions and cost alone. The experiential phenomenon of home is the one that distinguishes it from that of a house (Dovey, 1985). As Vycinas (1961) pointed out, ‘The phenomenon of home … used to be an overwhelming and interchangeable something to which we are subordinate and from which our way of life was oriented and directed” (p. 84–85). The notion of ‘home’ as opposed to ‘house’ is enriched with meaning, emotion and sentiment (Sopher, 1979, pp. 129–145).

The experience of having a home creates a sense of identity with the neighbourhood and society. When a person is homeless, (s)he is deprived of these valuable experiences of empathy and bonding, which are important characteristics of human development. From this perspective, social isolation, which is caused by homelessness, may lead to criminalization. Its psychological impact as well as economic cost is enormous. Crime, mental illness, and poor productivity are only some of the prominent outcomes. Therefore, the rapidly increasing statistics of homelessness remain a legitimate concern of the policymakers. Most civil societies now attempt to provide permanent shelters for the citizens for their protection, conservation of body heat, and privacy. As Morin (1987) points out, ‘Homelessness is a sum total of our dreams, politics, intentions, errors, cruelties, kindnesses, all of it recorded, in the flesh, in the life of street’ (p. 41).

Home contributes to human development by inculcating a sense of ‘order’, ‘identification’, and promoting ‘dialectic processes’ (Dovey, 1985). Ordering or ‘patterning’ of human experience that takes place at home paves the way for basic spatial, temporal, and socio-cultural orientation. Here, distinction should be made between conceptual space and lived space (Bollnow, 1967). Conceptual space is the abstract geometrical space which an individual can objectively measure, whereas the lived space is the pre-conceptual and meaningful spatial experience. The author speaks of ‘natural space’, which represents ‘the zero point in their reference system’ (Bollnow, 1967, p. 180) and home is an example of the same. Phenomenologists describe the experience of being at home as ‘being in the world’ (e.g., Heidegger, 1962). ‘Lived space’ … is ‘constituted and organised by corporal scheme, which is itself constituted by means of bodily movements and actions in specific situations’ (Zaner, 1971, p. 166). This experience is concrete and meaning cantered. Home is considered as a sacred (Eliade, 1959) and secure place – ‘a demarcated territory with both physical and symbolic boundaries that ensure the dwellers can control access and behaviour within’ (Dovey, 1985, p. 36). It inculcates orderliness and a feeling of certainty and stability by reducing vulnerability and building resilience.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 25, describes housing as a fundamental human right. To paraphrase, ‘Everyone has the right to standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and the family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’ (United Nations, 1948, p. 5). Not providing homes to the citizens is considered as a prima facie violation of Article 11(1) of the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as well. It recognizes every citizen’s right to housing, adequate standard of living, and continuous improvement of living conditions.

Homelessness is a matter of serious concern in the humanitarian point of view as it leads to the person’s vulnerability and lack of security. Referring to the women in particular, ICESR maintains (Comment No. 7) that women face ‘particular vulnerability to acts of violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless’. Homeless people are also deprived of their political rights to vote and (hence) have little or no access to basic services. They are not only deprived of their fundamental rights, but are also excluded from the society in many ways. This social exclusion causes many forms of deprivation that forces them to lead a miserable life. Therefore, homelessness is considered as the most perceptible and severe symptoms of lack of concern for human rights.

Definition

Being ‘homeless’ holds several meanings. Some of them are too narrow, whereas others are too wide. This definitional void has often created difficulties in understanding of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, for any meaningful dialogue on the subject and policy decisions, it is important to define it. In fact, it is a philosophical question as much as a practical one. Homelessness is a condition, which is characterized either by having no access to shelter or access to shelter that is so precarious that life is threatened (Glasser, 1996).

Either not having a home or a home that does not provide adequate security is the condition called ‘homelessness’. According to the Census of India, homeless people are those who do not live in census houses – that is, census-defined houses. A census house is described as ‘a structure with roof’ (Census of India, 1991). Homeless people are the ones who do not have a fixed, regular, and adequate residence to stay during the night-time. They might be staying in public or privately supervised temporary accommodation or may be using public or private space not generally used as regular sleeping place for humans (McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, 1987, US). In 2004, UN Economic Commission for Europe in its Conference of European Statisticians (CES) also defined homeless as those who are without a shelter or living quarters, carry their few possessions with them, sleeping in t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Part I Issues and problems
• 3 Survival behaviour
• 4 Trauma, marginalization, and citizenship
• 5 Deprivation and human development
• 6 Fostering human development
• 7 Social change
• Part II The field study
• 9 The journey
• 10 Housing
• 11 The demolition
• 12 Health care
• 13 Results and discussion
• Part III The road ahead
• References
• Index