Homelessness

This entry discusses homelessness, including its definitions, causes, consequences, and related social policies. Homelessness represents an example of deviance that is fundamentally conceptualized in relation to the normal living conditions in a given society. That is, what constitutes homelessness varies significantly by social context. Homelessness reflects a living condition that is deviant for a developed society but not for less developed societies. For example, those living in self-made wooden shacks under highway bridges are decidedly homeless in the United States, but they are counted in national censuses of other countries where such conditions are normal and widespread. As such, this entry focuses on homelessness in developed countries, and primarily in the U.S. context, where it represents a complex set of social factors and economic inequality.

In the decades after the Civil War, the railroad, lumber, and coal industries provided a large number of migratory jobs. At that time, the hobo life was portrayed as one of adventure. However, as these labor sectors shrank, increasing numbers of individuals sought work in urban areas. This created a wave of economically disfranchised individuals who were static and standout features of the urban landscape. During this time, the homeless transformed from tramps (migratory workers) and hobos (migratory nonworkers) to skid row bums and vagrants (nonmigrant, nonworkers). Current conceptions of homelessness are most directly rooted in the negative attitudes that developed during this period.

The problem of homelessness remained relatively small in scale until the mid-1970s, when manufacturing jobs sharply decreased and wages declined against inflation. During the same period, the United States saw the closing of a large number of single-room occupancy units and other forms of affordable housing. In sharp contrast to the image of the older, alcoholic homeless male, insofar as homelessness is the result of the political–economic circumstances, it is increasingly being experienced by families, women, and younger men. At the same time, while homelessness is directly related to social–structural conditions, perception and social responses continue to employ rigidly individualistic notions. That is, the homeless today are stigmatized as dangerous, mentally ill, drug addicted, and individually at fault for their own circumstances.