CREATING INTERSECTIONS: MAPPING THE PARALLEL LIVES OF HOMELESSNESS IN WASHINGTON D.C. by Alice Peck A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Conflict Analysis and Resolution Committee: ___________________________________________ Chair of Committee ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Graduate Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution Date: _____________________________________ Fall Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Creating Intersections: Mapping the Parallel Lives of Homelessness in Washington D.C. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at George Mason University by Alice Peck Bachelor of Science University of Bristol, 2012 Director: Leslie K. Dwyer, Professor School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution Fall Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2015 Alice Peck All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION I dedicate my thesis to the individuals who are at its centre, with whom I had the privilege and utter pleasure of spending the past ten months. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been a journey for me, both intellectual and emotional, and I give my wholehearted thanks to all those who have helped me along its way. I thank the staff and volunteers at House of Francis, who welcomed me into their community and inspired me; I am in awe of their constant passion and commitment. I thank my family and friends whose love, laughter, and encouragement kept me nourished. I thank the intellectual community of colleagues, staff, and professors at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, especially Dr. Leslie Dwyer, Dr. Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, and Dr. Susan Hirsch, whose trust and guidance empowered me to follow my heart in my research. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ vii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Chapter One: HOMELESSNESS AS VIOLENCE ............................................................ 1 Chapter Two: ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE ......................................................................................................................... 9 Ethnography .................................................................................................................... 9 Participant Observation ................................................................................................. 12 Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 14 Trust and Presentation of Self ....................................................................................... 15 Language, Voice, Tense, Representation ...................................................................... 17 Chapter Three: DOGS BEFORE HUMANS .................................................................... 22 Chapter Four: MAPPING HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED STATES .................... 29 Overview of Homelessness in the USA ........................................................................ 29 Definitions of Homelessness ......................................................................................... 31 Reasons for Homelessness ............................................................................................ 35 State of Homelessness in the United States .................................................................. 38 Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Homelessness ............................................ 42 Chapter Five: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF WASHINGTON D.C. ....... 53 Chapter Six: SPACES OF THE CITY: EXCLUSION AND CONTAINMENT ............. 60 Right to the City ............................................................................................................ 60 Polarizing Forces ........................................................................................................... 70 Spatial Identities ............................................................................................................ 77 Chapter SEVEN: SPATIAL CONTAINMENT AND REGULATION OF TIME .......... 89 Spaces for the Homeless ............................................................................................... 94 Heterotopias of Homelessness ...................................................................................... 96 Theft of Dignity, Denial of Community ...................................................................... 103 v Chapter EIGHT: CONTESTATION FOR PLACE WITHIN “PUBLIC SPACE” OF WASHINGTON D.C. ..................................................................................................... 109 The Right to the Toilet ................................................................................................ 109 Museums ..................................................................................................................... 119 Libraries ...................................................................................................................... 122 Union Station .............................................................................................................. 126 Chapter NINE: SPACES OF THE USA: INTERSECTIONS OF NEOLIBERALISM 136 Symbolic Violence and Enduring Allegiance ............................................................. 137 Unequal Beginnings and Habitus Formation .............................................................. 148 Chapter TEN: UNTOUCHABLE SPACES ................................................................... 155 Resistance through Memory: the Power of the Past ................................................... 159 Untouchable Faith ....................................................................................................... 165 Chapter ELEVEN: CONCLUSIONS - CREATING INTERSECTIONS ...................... 169 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 177 References ....................................................................................................................... 188 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ................................................................ CDC Conflict Analysis and Resolution ................................................................................. CAR District of Columbia ...................................................................................................... D.C. District of Columbia Housing Authority ................................................................... DCHA Helping the Homeless ..................................................................................................... HtH House of Francis ............................................................................................................ HoF Institute for Children and Poverty ............................................... ICP Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness ...................................................... ICPH Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer .......................................................... LGBTQ Martin Luther King ....................................................................................................... MLK National Alliance to End Homelessness .................................................................... NAEH National Coalition for the Homeless ............................................................................. NCH National Health Care for the Homeless Council ..................................................... NCHCH North East ........................................................................................................................ NE National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty .................................................. NLCHP North of Massachusetts Avenue ................................................................................. NoMa North West ...................................................................................................................... NW Point in Time....................................................................................................................PIT Single Room Occupancies ............................................................................................. SRO South of Houston Street ............................................................................................... SoHo South of Market ........................................................................................................... SoMa Supplemental Security Income ........................................................................................ SSI United Kingdom ............................................................................................................... UK United Nations ................................................................................................................. UN United Nations Regional Information Centre ........................................................... UNRIC United States ................................................................................................................. USA United States Department of Health and Human Services ........................................... HHS United States Department of Housing and Urban Development .................................. HUD vii ABSTRACT CREATING INTERSECTIONS: MAPPING THE PARALLEL LIVES OF HOMELESSNESS IN WASHINGTON D.C. Alice Peck, M.S. George Mason University, 2015 Thesis Director: Dr. Leslie K. Dwyer This thesis explores homelessness in Washington D.C. Drawing from eight months of ethnographic fieldwork, I consider experiences of homelessness in the changing urban space of Washington D.C., contextualizing these within the broader forces of neoliberalism. Situating personal narratives within the social and physical spaces in which daily life unravels, I critically analyse the denial of space and place to people who are homeless, whose existence as homeless bodies represents stark contradictions to normative ideals of neoliberal subjects. I draw on theories of symbolic, structural, and everyday violence to argue that to be homeless is to exist within a category of precarity and powerlessness in the parallel margins of society – the spaces in which paradoxically different, concurrent lives are chartered. viii CHAPTER ONE: HOMELESSNESS AS VIOLENCE This thesis draws on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork to consider the denial of place and space for people who are homeless within Washington D.C. Through data collected from interviews and participant observation, I analyse the ways in which several people experience the violence of homelessness within the context of the changing urban spaces of D.C., and the broader neoliberal political and economic structures of the United States of America. My research explores how people who are homeless in Washington D.C. navigate the places through which routine life unravels – the places of home, employment, leisure, travel, community, and culture that are the taken for granted social and physical spaces of life. I consider how access to these spaces is not guaranteed for all; for people who are homeless and existing on precarious margins of society, the right to these spaces involves a complex struggle for place and recognition in a context where admission corresponds with status and socio-economic position. I argue that the continued denial of place to people who are homeless represents a form of violence that both constrains the physical settings in which the homeless can visibly be, and regulates the social and personal spaces in which the homeless can realise a sense of self, humanity, and dignity. Despite sharing a common humanness within the same city, people who are homeless are forced to inhabit a parallel world in which paradoxically different, concurrent lives are chartered. 1