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作者

来源

HOUSING POLICY DEBATE,Vol.28,Issue5,P.797-813

语言

英文

关键字

abandoned property; squatting; homeless; housing; urban decline; NEW-YORK-CITY; URBAN SHRINKAGE; HOMELESS PEOPLE; POOR HEALTH; DETROIT; PROPERTY; MOVEMENT; PATTERNS; MICHIGAN; VICTIMIZATION

作者单位

[Herbert, Claire W.] Drexel Univ, Dept Sociol, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA. Herbert, CW (reprint author), Drexel Univ, Dept Sociol, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA. E-Mail: ch922@drexel.edu

摘要

Despite severely depressed property markets, housing in declining U.S. cities can be surprisingly unaffordable for poor residents. Yet the characteristics of decline, such as abundant vacant property and constrained economic/political conditions, also provide opportunity for squatting. This article explores survival squattingillegal occupation of property as a means for procuring suitable housing by marginalized residents. Drawing on a 4.5-year ethnography in Detroit, I examine the mechanisms by which people strategically choose squatting as a method of sheltering in the context of local conditions, and the experiences and conditions of this practice. I situate these empirical findings within a broader discussion comparing squatting and other forms of housing that have received considerable attention by researchers (e.g., shelter use, sleeping rough, doubling up). Squatting is particularly risky and unstable, and often very hidden. Substandard housing conditions prevail, and substance abuse is common. Squatting may have negative implications for child welfare, but may also provide measures of independence, self-determination, and comfort for illegal occupiers. There is a critical need for further research in this area, both to inform comprehensive housing policies and to anticipate how squatters' well-being is impacted by other urban initiatives, such as blight demolition.