Finding Security on Skid Row: The Positive Role of Organizational and Social Ties in Service Hubs in the United States and Japan

Abstract

Service hubs are neighborhoods where homelessness and efforts to address it cluster. Are these “skid rows” jails without bars, or are there ways that service hubs bolster residents’ feelings of security about their lives? To address these questions, I analyze ethnographic interview data from sixty residents of four hubs—Skid Row, Los Angeles; Overtown, Miami; Kamagasaki, Osaka; and San’ya, Tokyo. I find that in these service hubs, residents’ ontological security is supported by a combination of engagement with organizations, access to subsidized housing and income, and ties with family and friends. However, this sense of security can be undermined by negative experiences with police and crime, poor sanitation, welfare and aid bureaucracy, and redevelopment projects. I argue that these threats should be addressed to enhance the strengths of service hubs, which can provide important insights for efforts toward more even geographic distribution of housing and aid.

More than Bare-Bones Survival? From the Urban Margins to the Urban Commons

“…Commoning thus involves establishing rules or protocols of access and use, taking caring of and accepting responsibility for a resource, and distributing the benefits in ways that take into account the well-being of others". In other words, a deeper, longer-term engagement to people and places, of care-giving and place-making, enhancing ontological security and belonging (Marr 2016;2021). An example of a caring commons could include services for homeless individuals that provide durable exits from homelessness in the form of affordable, supportive housing.…”

“…Subsequently, Overtown saw disinvestment and persistent underemployment, as Miami's downtown business district also faded. While there had been a concentration of older helping agencies around downtown, many new ones created to address surging homelessness in the 1990s also located in nearby Overtown (Marr 2021). When Downtown Miami saw a revival in the 2000s, with high-end condos and a new basketball arena, some of the agencies re-located out of central downtown into nearby Overtown, often with government pressure and support.…”