- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
- 2-3 annotations.
This week, I specifically focused on finalizing the structure of my paper and working on the powerpoint presentation for class. In terms of organization, I intend to start the paper with a brief anecdote from an individual experiencing homelessness followed by demographics on homelessness. Next, I intend to provide a historical framework of homelessness through a neoliberal framework in the construction of deviancy and certain criminalization laws and exclusionary practices as a result of that deviancy. Then, I will discuss about the effects of those criminalization laws on individuals and the ways in which they cope through times of distress by forming informal social networks and tent encampments. Finally, I will contextualize this information in the context of Portland, ME from my research on criminalization laws in Portland, their effects on homeless individuals, as well as the ways in which they navigate the space from their interactions with social services such as Preble Street and Homeless HealthPartners. In addition to my research, I will rely on my interviews to gain a more in-depth insight regarding the ways in which gentrification, as a product of neoliberal ideologies, and the shift towards greater private investment affects the lives of those experiencing homelessness by placing them in precarious situations. Thus, I argue that such deep-rooted neoliberal ideologies in history stemming from the Reagan administration continue to affect homeless individuals in the present day. This is further exacerbated by the notion of deviance and the ways in which the greater society seeks to eliminate the problem of homelessness by criminalizing them as opposed to addressing the structural issues at hand and providing them with supportive networks.
In terms of research itself, I have consulted the following books so far: Confronting Homelessness: Poverty, Politics, and the Failure of Social Policy, The Homelessness Industry: A Critique of US Social Policy, Homeless not Hopeless: The Survival Networks of Latino and African American Men, and Homelessness and Social Work: An Intersectional Approach. I provided brief analyses of those books in the logs from the last two weeks. This week, I was more interested to understand the coping mechanisms and the formation of social networks among those experiencing homelessness. Thus, I extended my research and consulted Teresa Gowan’s book Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco which understands those tent encampments to be spaces that separate individuals experiencing homelessness from the ‘sin’ and ‘sickness’ that is often perceived of them on the streets or in shelters. This book also provided a thorough analysis of the history of homelessness and its implications into the present-day in the construction of deviancy. In addition to this book, I also read the article “Medicalizing Homelessness: The Production of Self-Blame and Self-Governing within Homeless Shelters” which expanded on the concept of encampments in serving as safe spaces for these individuals in allowing them to form a sense of collective identity. Moreover, this article also addressed the issues surrounding the medicalization of homelessness populations in perceiving them as these individuals who can be “cured” from their mental illness, alcoholism, or substance abuse problems which will eliminate homelessness as opposed to actively acknowledging the structural issues at hand allowing for issues like homelessness to arise. I have also seen such similar themes in some of the other readings that I had consulted before, allowing me to draw connections between all of them.
In terms of future directions, I intend to hopefully have my interview with a representative from Homeless HealthPartners in the very near future to gain more diversity in the experiences of homeless individuals in Portland. Moreover, I intend to do more research on the history of homelessness in Portland, as well as certain criminalization laws in place. I think finding research on this may be more challenging as scholarly information is limited from what I have seen so far. Hopefully, the person I interview from Homeless HealthPartners can provide more information on that, or direct me to resources that can discuss about that in more detail. Besides that, I feel like I can start writing my research paper based on the research that I have already done, except for the section focusing specifically on Portland.
Lyon-Callo, Vincent. 2000. Medicalizing Homelessness: The Production of Self-Blame and Self-Governing within Homeless Shelters. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 14(3): 328-345.
Gowan, Teresa. Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 2010. Print.