“I’d Rather Be Hungry Than Well Fed But Stabbed Up”: Inner-City Violence Displacing Unhoused Persons

• In Event: Experiences of Violence and Victimization Among Unhoused Persons

Abstract

Several North American cities are currently experiencing “homelessness crises,” which are prompting considerable and often heated public, political, activist, media, and scholarly debates. The core of these disagreements lies in debates over the most effective response to homelessness, whether it be through a punitive/repressive approach or a compassionate/public health approach. Historically, responses to homelessness have favoured law and order responses, prompting scholarly concern about the role these efforts have played in displacing unhoused community members. Drawing upon 550 interviews with people experiencing homelessness across 9 cities, this paper complicates the traditional narrative of criminalization and punitiveness, demonstrating that the key motivator for displacement is unhoused persons’ individual and collective concerns about street-based violence and victimization, rather than repressive policing strategies. Based on these findings, we unmask unhoused persons’ conceptions and experiences of ‘safe’ versus ‘unsafe’ spaces, drawing critical attention to how violence and victimization shape unhoused people's connection to space.

Authors

• Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta

• Katheryn Lee, University of Alberta

• Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg

• Carolyn Greene, Athabasca University