To close for comfort? Reframing homeless exclusion through Sofa-Surfing experiences

Keywords: Homelessness, Youth Homelessness, Housing, Sofa-Surfing, Couch Surfing, Capability
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 73

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, geographers interested in homelessness have primarily theorised within a punitive frame or researched for difference. Geographers within the punitive frame emphasise that, in order to attract the public into their prime urban spaces, policy makers have attempted to remove homeless people from said spaces (see Smith, 1996; Mitchell, 1997, or recently Speer, 2018; 2019). Alternatively, scholars concerned with difference tend to emphasise how the various spaces, policies, identities, and on-the-ground attitudes coalesce, creating multiple experiences and public responses to homelessness (DeVerteuil et al. 2009; May & Cloke, 2014). However, the prevalent act of sofa-surfing, whereby a host invites a homeless person to stay temporarily in their home, remains unexplored (Clarke et al. 2014; AIHW, 2016), despite its capacity to deepen understandings the homeless experience and the public disliking of the visibly homeless. Consequently, this paper explores how the intimate visibility of sofa-surfing, and its guest/host power relationships, effects a homeless person’s affiliations with the public and support services (McLoughlin, 2011), claims to space (see Langegger & Koester, 2016), and their mobilities and tactics (Peters, 2012; McLoughlin, 2011). Overall, the paper concludes that the growing public acceptance of sofa-surfing, supports previous research that indicates the ambiguity of public responses towards homelessness (May & Cloke, 2014; Langegger & Koester, 2016)