“This is My Community”: Reproducing and Resisting Boundaries of Exclusion in Contested Public Spaces

Abstract

The way that public space is structured has significant implications for identity, social interaction, and participation in society. For those experiencing homelessness, with no or limited private space, survival hinges on the accessibility and livability of public space. However, the increasing privatization of public space in the United States has contributed to the implementation of anti-homeless ordinances in cities, restricting sitting, standing, panhandling, and sleeping in public. This study analyzes data from interviews with housed and unhoused community members, text from a local policy document, and ethnographic observations to explore how boundaries between "insiders" and "outsiders" are drawn in public space and mediated through individual discourse. Our findings suggest that boundaries of exclusion are constructed through dominant narratives that portray the unhoused as a threat to safety and economic vitality, thus justifying the need for regulation and punishment through the criminalization of homelessness. Yet, informants also demonstrate resistance to this narrative by discussing how criminalization of homelessness perpetuates dehumanization, violence, and economic inequality. Policy implications for the regulation of public space are discussed.

“It’s Just a Band-Aid on Something No One Really Wants to See or Acknowledge”: A Photovoice Study with Transitional Aged Youth Experiencing Homelessness to Examine the Roots of San Diego’s 2016–2018 Hepatitis A Outbreak

“…Analysis of photographs of signage were consistent with the experiences reported by TAY participating in community SHOWeD and member-checking sessions and the community forum, in which they described the act of merely existing as a TAY or other PEH in a public space as being criminalized. This well-documented phenomenon [14,34,35,52] was perceived as further marginalizing a group that already lacks power and control over personal space by creating barriers to opportunities for health and social equity. Additionally, the HAV interventions (e.g., handwashing stations) and general resources for TAY and other PEH were physically located in a restricted geographic region, with brick and mortar resources sometimes hidden from the view of the (housed) public.…”

“…One powerful set of findings from the photovoice data (particularly the data collection prompt "a day in the life of a TAY accessing specific resources or services, or meeting basic needs"), and supported by asset mapping, was that many of the resources available to TAY and other PEH were geospatially located in a small area of downtown San Diego. This clustering of resources is likely a result of NIMBYism and associated community action against the provision of services for PEH in middle-and high-income neighborhoods outside of downtown [14,[33][34][35]). Relatedly, many of the HAV interventions-e.g., handwashing stations-were also concentrated in and around the same downtown area.…”

“…The study team regularly witnessed the criminalization and over-policing of TAY and other PEH, particularly in downtown, a phenomenon documented in the existing literature on homelessness [14,34,35,52]. For example, during study team meetings at the downtown public library where many PEH seek shelter or access resources (e.g., charging phones, using bathrooms, accessing Internet, reading books), police cars were frequently circling the library surveilling groups of people who appeared to be experiencing homelessness, and/or asking them to leave the area (see Figure 7).…”

Theorizing Critical Placemaking as a Tool for Reclaiming Public Space

“…By excluding marginalized perspectives from consideration in “the public,” master narratives mask inequality and reproduce existing social relations. For example, research on housed and unhoused community members in the U.S. by Toolis and Hammack () shows how discourse framing unhoused people as out of control and out of place served as a justification for their punishment and removal. Through a process called master narrative engagement, individuals make sense of their own personal experiences through dialogue with these existing cultural narratives, which they may reproduce or resist (Hammack, ; Hammack & Cohler, ).…”

Care Like Kin: Community Based Youth Serving Organizations and the Social Reproduction of Disconnected Youth in Rural America

“…In serving as a type of counterspace for disconnected youth, theories in community psychology also suggest that CBYSOs may provide a basis for “critical placemaking” for this youth population by offering a platform for the conscientization and empowerment of disconnected youth (Toolis & Hammack, ). Such a view suggests that CBYSOs not only assist disconnected youth in ensuring their social reproduction but also offer a physical space for these young adults to gather.…”