If meaningful change is to take place with regard to homelessness, future research must take on the difficult task of critically examining and evaluating the cultural ideal of home. For it is against that taken-for-granted, progress-driven idealization that our definition and management of homelessness begin. In this paper the historical contexts within which home and homelessness have been defined in the United States are traced, and the degree to which they are conceptually and functionally connected is shown, It is argued that we must examine the basic premises embedded in the home ideal, because this ideal is used as the standard against which homelessness is observed and treated. At root, the home ideal is found to be exclusive, arbitrary, ambiguous, and open to manipulation. Hence, contemporary homelessness must be understood within the culturally guided and historically contingent contexts that home and homelessness have been defined in the United States.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonE, 1989, “Sex codes and family life among poor inner-city youth”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science50179–91.
2.
BassukE, 1984, “The homelessness problem”Scientific American251(1) 40–45.
BirchE, (Ed.), 1985The Unsheltered Woman: Women and Housing in the 80s (Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ).
5.
BourqueMZeiglerNHermanBSidersR, 1990Both Ornamental and Useful: The Lancaster County Almshouse and HospitalCenter for Historic Architecture and Engineering, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
6.
BoyerM C, 1983Dreaming the Rational City: The Myth of American City Planning (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
7.
BreckinridgeSAbbotE, 1910, “Chicago's housing problem: Families in furnished rooms”The American Journal of Sociology16289–308.
8.
BremnerR, 1958, “The big flat: History of a New York tenement house”American Historical Review6454–62.
9.
ClarkC, 1986The American Family Home 1800–1960 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC).
10.
CohnJ, 1979The Palace or the Poorhouse: The American House as a Cultural Symbol (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI).
11.
CollinsJ A, 1895, “The decadence of home-ownership in the US”The American Magazine of Civics656–64.
12.
CowanR S, 1976, “The industrial revolution in the home: Household technology and social change in the 20th century”Technology and Culture171–23.
13.
DauntonM J, 1983House and Home in the Victorian City: Working Class Housing 1850–1914 (Edward Arnold, Sevenoaks, Kent).
14.
DavisA, 1967Spearheads for Reform; Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890–1914 (Oxford University Press, New York).
15.
DearMGleesonB, 1991, “Community attitudes toward the homeless”Urban Geography12155–176.
16.
DearMWolchJ, 1987Landscapes of Despair: From Deinstitutionalization to Homelessness (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).
DeGraffenriedC, 1896, “Need for better homes for wage-earners”The Forum21301–312.
19.
DemosJ, 1970A Little Commonwealth (Oxford University Press, New York).
20.
DonaldR, 1896, “The housing of the poor in cities”The Outlook53(5) 204–205.
21.
DuncanJ, (Ed.), 1982Housing and Identity (Holmes and Meier, New York).
22.
ElsingW, 1892, “Life in New York tenement houses”Scribner's Magazine11697–721.
23.
FallisGMurrayA, (Eds), 1990Housing the Homeless and Poor: New Partnerships among the Private, Public and Third Sectors (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
24.
FeaginJ, 1975Subordinating the Poor: Welfare and American Beliefs (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
25.
GilmanC P, 1903The Home: Its Work and Influences (McClure, Phillips and Company, New York).
26.
GlazerN, 1972, “The creative disorder of antipoverty”, in Poverty and Social Welfare in the United States Ed. LuboveR, (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York) pp 102–109.
27.
GouldE R, 1896, “The economics of improved housing”Yale Review5(1) 8–30.
28.
HandlinD, 1979The American Home: Architecture and Society, 1815–1915 (Little, Brown, Boston, MA).
29.
HanleyR, 1991, “Homeless man is offered $150,000 to make peace”New York Times 11 November, page B6.
30.
HarkJ M, 1888, “The evolution of the home”Andover Review10509–522.
31.
Harper's1865, “The houses we live in”3735–741.
32.
HaydenD, 1981The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
33.
HaydenD, 1984Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life (W W Norton, New York).
34.
HaywardD G, 1975, “Home as an environmental and psychological concept”Landscape202–9.
35.
HirschK, 1989Songs from the Alley (Ticknor and Fields, New York).
36.
HochCSlaytonR A, 1989New Homeless and Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA).
37.
HoffJ, 1990, “Making a house”Metropolis10(2) 46–51.
38.
HolmesG, 1895, “Tenancy in the United States”The Quarterly Journal of Economics10(1) 34–53.
39.
HopkinsH L, 1972, “The New Deal and the indigent”, in Poverty and Social Welfare in the United States Ed. LuboveR, (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York) pp 71–76.
40.
HopperK, 1987, “The public response to homelessness in New York City—the last hundred years”, in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives Ed. BeardR, (Museum of the City of New York, New York) pp 88–101.
41.
HopperK, 1990, “Advocacy for the homeless in the 1980s”, in Homeless in America Ed. CatonC, (Oxford University Press, New York) pp 160–173.
42.
HopperKSusserEConoverS, 1985, “Economies of makeshift: Deindustrialization and homelessness in New York City”Urban Anthropology14183–236.
43.
HudsonH, 1876a, “Modern dwellings: Their construction, decoration, and furniture”Harper's52(312) 855–867.
44.
HudsonH, 1876b, “Modern dwellings their construction, decoration, and furniture, part II”Harper's53(313) 49–64.
45.
HuntM, 1910, “The housing of non-family groups of men in Chicago”The American Journal of Sociology16145–171.
46.
JacksonK, 1985Crabgrass Frontier (Oxford University Press, New York).
47.
JacksonK, 1987, “The Bowery: From residential street to Skid Row”, in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives Ed. BeardR, (Museum of the City of New York, New York) pp 69–79.
48.
JohnsonK, 1991, “Hartford court rules property of a homeless man is private”New York Times 19 March, pages B1, B6.
49.
KatzM, 1986In the Shadow of the Poorhouse (Basic Books, New York).
50.
KobayashiAMackenzieS, (Eds), 1989Remaking Human Geography(Unwin Hyman, Winchester, MA)pp 1–14.
51.
Lend a Hand1895, “Dwellings of the poor”15135–138.
52.
LeonardPDolbeareCLazereE, 1989A Place to Call Home: The Crisis in Housing for the Poor (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC).
53.
LuboveR, 1969The Professional Altruist: The Emergence of Social Work as a Career, 1880–1930 (Atheneum, New York).
54.
MackenzieSRoseD, 1983, “Industrial change, the domestic economy and home life”, in Redundant Spaces in Cities and Regions? Studies in Industrial Decline and Social Change Eds AndersonJDuncanSHudsonR, (Academic Press, London) pp 155–200.
55.
MadiganRMonroMSmithS, 1990, “Gender and the meaning of home”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research14625–647.
56.
MairA, 1986, “The homeless and the post-industrial society”Political Geography Quarterly5351–368.
57.
MarcuseP, 1990, “Homelessness and housing policy”, in Homeless in America Ed. CatonC, (Oxford University Press, New York) pp 138–159.
58.
MargolickD, 1990, “Poverty and privacy: Home sweet niche?”New York Times 17 November, pages 25–26.
59.
MasonJ, 1982History of Housing in the US, 1930–1980 (Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX).
60.
MeyerowitzJ, 1988Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880–1930 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
61.
MishraR, 1984The Welfare State in Crisis: Social Thought and Social Change (St Martin's Press, New York).
62.
MishraR, 1990, “The collapse of the welfare consensus? The welfare state in the 1980s”, in Housing the Homeless and Poor: New Partnerships among the Private, Public, and Third Sectors Eds FallisGMurrayA, (University of Toronto Press, Toronto) pp 82–114.
63.
ModellJHarevenT, 1973, “Urbanization and the malleable household: An examination of boarding and lodging in American families”Journal of Marriage and the Family35467–479.
64.
PeelM, 1986, “On the margins: Lodgers and hoarders in Boston, 1860–1900”The Journal of American History72813–834.
65.
PerinC, 1977Everything in Its Place (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).
66.
PetersL, 1987, “Images of the homeless in American art, 1860–1910”, in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives Ed. BeardR, (Museum of the City of New York, New York) pp 43–67.
67.
PioreM, 1987, “Historical perspectives and the interpretation of unemployment”Journal of Economic Literature251834–1850.
68.
PorteousD, 1976, “Home: The territorial core”Geographical Review66383–390.
69.
PrattG, 1987, “Class, home and politics”Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology24(1) 39–57.
70.
PrattG, 1989, “Incorporation theory and the reproduction of community fabric”, in The Power of Geography Eds WolchJDearM, (Unwin Hyman, Winchester, MA) pp 293–315.
71.
Review of Reviews1896, “New York's great movement for housing reform”14693–701.
72.
ReynoldsM, 1893, “The housing of the poor in American cities”American Economic Association Publications8(2) 3–132.
73.
RoseA, 1948, “Interest in the living arrangements of the urban unattached”The American Journal of Sociology52483–493.
74.
RossiP, 1989Down and Out in America (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
75.
RothmanD, 1971The Discovery of the Asylum (Little, Brown, Boston, MA).
76.
RothmanD, 1987, “The first shelters: The contemporary relevance of the almshouse”, in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives Ed. BeardR, (Museum of the City of New York, New York) pp 10–19.
77.
RoweL S, 1901, “The social consequences of city growth”Yale Review10298–312.
78.
RoweSWolchJ, 1990, “Social networks in time and space: Homeless women in Skid Row, Los Angeles”Annals of the Association of American Geographers80184–204.
79.
SaegertS, 1980, “Masculine cities and feminine suburbs: Polarized ideas and contradictory realities”Signs596–111.
80.
SaundersP, 1990A Nation of Home Owners (Unwin Hyman, London).
81.
SchiffL, 1990, “Would they be better off in a home?”National Review March, pp 33–35.
82.
SchneiderJ, 1986, “Skid Row as an urban neighborhood, 1880–1960”, in Housing the Homeless Eds EricksonJWilhelmC, (Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ) pp 167–189.
83.
Scientific American1896, “The housing of the working people—its economic and ethical aspects”749.
84.
SimlerL, 1986, “Tenancy in Colonial Pennsylvania: The case of Chester County”William and Mary Quarterly43542–569.
85.
SmithC, 1988, “Home and homelessness”, in Public Problems: The Management of Urban Distress (Guilford Press, New York) pp 225–238.
86.
SpahrC, 1895, “Owners and renters”The Outlook51188–189.
87.
StilgoeJ, 1988Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820–1939 (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).
88.
SturgisR C, 1898, “The evils of our wooden suburbs”New England Magazine (new series) 18739–751.
89.
TaggartR, 1970Low-income Housing: A Critique of Federal Aid (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD).
90.
TierneyJ, 1991, “After 16 years, human mole foresakes tunnel”New York Times 13 March, pages A1, B2.
91.
TuanY, 1977Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN).
Urban Anthropology199120(2), entire issue is devoted to homelessness.
94.
Urban Geography199112(2), entire issue is devoted to homelessness.
95.
Van de WeteringM, 1984, “The popular concept of ‘home’, in nineteenth century America”Journal of American Studies18(1) 5–28.
96.
WarnerS B, 1968The Private City (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA).
97.
WeinerL Y, 1985From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820–1980 (The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC).
98.
WheelerC, 1897, “A century of progress: What the century has done for the household”The Outlook57225–229.
99.
WilliamsP, 1987, “Constituting class and gender: A social history of home, 1700–1901”, in Class and Space: The Making of Urban Society Eds ThriftNWilliamsP, (Routledge and Kegan Paul, New York) pp 154–204.
100.
WilsonW, 1987The Truly Disadvantaged (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
101.
WolchJ, 1990The Shadow State: Government and Voluntary Sector in Transition (The Foundation Center, New York).
102.
WolchJAkitaA, 1988, “The federal response to homelessness, and its implications for American cities”Urban Geography1062–85.
103.
WrightG, 1980Moralism and the Model Home: Domestic Architecture and Cultural Conflict in Chicago, 1873–1913 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
104.
WrightG, 1981Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America (Pantheon Books, New York).
105.
ZorbaughH, 1926, “The dweller in furnished rooms: An urban type”, in The Urban Community, Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the American Sociological Society, 1925 Ed. BurgessE W, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL) pp 98–105.
