Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1988. / Vita. Bibliography: leaf 46.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 29, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-142).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1988. / Vita. Bibliography: leaf 46.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

Governments have done little to address poverty and homelessness despite awareness of the increasing number of people affected by these issues. Neoliberalizing processes and resulting federal and provincial social policy changes since the 1980s have driven the decimation of Canada’s welfare state and contributed to expanding inequalities that systematically privilege a wealthy few at the expense of the balance of Canadians, particularly those living in poverty. Collective resistances may be the best available and most powerful tool people in poverty, including those who experience homelessness, possess to challenge government policy directions and outcomes that marginalize their voices, needs, and wants. The literature on collective action of people in poverty and who experience homelessness is sparse. Scholarship incorporating the voices of people who experience homelessness and participate in collective action is meager within this small body of literature. The role agency plays in individual behaviors and how such choices may be shaped by social conditions, is relatively unexamined. An activist ethnography, with structural violence as described by Paul Farmer as the critical frame, was used to explore the role various types of agency played in collective actions of people with experiences of homelessness or experience housing insecurity in the Capital Region of British Columbia. Primary questions guiding the research were “What were participants’ experiences of collective change efforts? How may these efforts be understood within a structural violence framework? To answer these questions I chronicle and critically examine the challenges and successes of “The Committee”, a group of housed and unhoused activists as one example of collective actors that ‘push back’ against processes and practices that produce and reproduce homelessness. Findings suggest that structurally violent processes generate embodied outcomes, lived experiences that constrain agency, often working to exclude people with experience of homelessness from collective resistances. Participation of people who are actively homeless or with experiences of homelessness in collective resistances requires attending to basic material needs and daily life issues in ways that allow meaningful participation in organizing work as a precursor to collective action. Allies can reproduce structures of violence and contribute to dismantling those same structures. Relationships between people with experience of homelessness and allies may work to mitigate unequal power relations, allowing some people with experiences of homelessness opportunities for participation in collective resistances not otherwise available to them. Implications for grassroots organizing and inclusion of people with experience of homelessness in collective resistances are included. / Graduate

How do homeless people make homes on the street? Over two years of fieldwork in Paris, I observed the daily practices and routines of people who are sleeping rough. How do they earn money through begging? What factors do they consider when finding and making shelters? I followed people through different institutional settings – a homeless day centre, a needle exchange, a centre for people with alcohol problems and ultimately also a homeless shelter – on their way away from the street always documenting the conflicts between their short term – drugs and alcohol – and long term hopes. I observed the ways which they were supported by assistants socials and other institutional actors in their struggle to create spaces of reflective freedom. I argue that their efforts were about home making and as such about making a better life first on and then away from the street.

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide an academic platform for people who are homeless to narrate their lived experiences. Traditionally, scholars and politicians drive public conversations about homelessness and commonly reach conclusions that require more social programs and more funding. In the literature review of this dissertation, I argue that many social programs for the homeless, while well intended, fall short of their goals because scholars and politicians do not appreciate the idea that homeless people are part of a distinct culture with different lifestyles and objectives. Because of the cultural differences between the housed and the homeless, social programs that may work for the housed may not work for the homeless. Therefore, to create policy that will best function for the homeless, it is important to learn about the culture of homelessness by listening to the voices of homeless people. In an effort to learn about the culture of homelessness, in this dissertation I utilize the narrative paradigm as a theoretical framework and ask: How do homeless people narrate their experiences?; What types of experiences and relationships do homeless people have with government benefits and charitable organizations?; and How would homeless people craft economic and social policy if given the opportunity to do so? To answer these questions, I spent one summer working at a homeless shelter and interviewed 10 homeless people. While each person had an individual story, there were common themes that emerged among participants. These themes were arranged chronologically and analyzed in chapters entitled: Losing Everything, Navigating the System, Manipulating the System, and Seeking Recognition/Finding Community. Based on my analysis of these narratives, I propose suggestions for how public policy can better respond to the needs of the homeless by offering long-term shelter assistance, connecting benefits to work and education performance, and educating the housed about the resources available for the homeless in their community. In the end, implementing policies that address homelessness should be done in conversation with the homeless. The voices of homeless people matter and intercultural dialogue between the housed and the homeless fosters a sense of mutual respect, personal empowerment, and shared ownership of public policy.

In 1981, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH), to raise the consciousness of the world to the estimated 100 million people who have no shelter, and to the 1 billion who lack a secure, permanent home which they can afford. This dissertation contributes to the goals and objectives of the IYSH, and introduces conceptual and practical considerations which are pertinent to a geographic examination of homelessness in Canada. Field observations from across the country are integrated with a critical appraisal of the international literature to demonstrate that the spatial distribution and diversity of the homeless are related to physical shelter problems and to a combination of individual, social and economic precipitants which produce homelessness at a variety of regional, community and household scales. Three broad categories among the homeless in Canada are identified: those who are inadequately housed; those who are economically disenfranchised, and those who are socially marginalised and service-dependent. Homelessness is shown to be linked to a wide range of human, social and economic problems, for individuals and families, for communities and for society as a whole. It is defined as the absence of a continuing or permanent home over which people have personal control, and which provides the essential needs of shelter, privacy and security at an affordable cost, together with ready access to social, economic, health and cultural public services. In various regions of the country the problems historically have been chronic; in others, they are spatially and temporally episodic. It is argued here that the problem constitutes a legitimate focus of academic inquiry which is of significance and relevance to geography. Case examples are presented to show: homelessness results from the reciprocal relations between individuals and social processes; these relations are manifest in identifiable spatial forms; these spatial arrangements in turn influence the composition of the homeless and the sources of homelessness. Geographic considerations contribute to an understanding of homelessness in Canada through an analysis of how individual action, social processes and spatial relations are linked to the genesis and persistence of homelessness. By showing how certain events and conditions precipitate and exacerbate homeless-related problems, evidence is presented that the problems in Canada cannot be reduced to single-factor causal explanations. Despite regional and temporal variations, and the establishment of a social welfare safety net, poverty, unemployment and inadequate social assistance benefits have historically influenced the form of homelessness. The effects of deinstitutionalisation and revitalisation have significantly altered the structure of the inner city and the vital role which these areas play in providing a supportive community for the socially marginalised homeless. As living conditions have improved, housing problems of the homeless have shifted to concerns over affordability and the lack of low-cost accommodation. Two significant conclusions emerge: homelessness is not a problem OF cities; but IS amenable to public policy intervention, of which housing is a vital but not exclusive part of creating a place to call home. Given the classification of the homeless and the recognition that homelessness is manifest at varying geographic scales, differential policies, programmes and housing alternatives are required to assist the homeless and reduce homelessness. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate