THESIS | derrickinnz

My Thesis Work

Homelessness is a large part of the policy agenda for government and non-profits alike in Canada, and in New Zealand it is larger for non-profits than for the government. Based on homelessness counts for each city, homelessness in Canada has been stagnant or declining and steadily increasing in New Zealand. These counts usually tabulate the amount of people that either look homeless or self-identify as homeless, which makes them more visible. The people that are counted are encountered on the street or in institutions such as shelters, hostpitals, prisons, or detox centers. There are also hidden homeless that sleep in their vehicles, couch surf, or live in inadequate shelters to which further compounds the issue of homelessness as they are unable to be counted.

Because mainstream society sees homeless individuals as not deserving, society often tries to exclude them from the social sphere. Social exclusion is driven by unequal power relationships interacting across economic, political, social and cultural factors, at the environmental and individual realms. Social exclusion blocks a group from acheiving the same adequate rights, opportunities, and resources as the mainstream society, for a variety of reasons .

It postulated that because homeless people’s lives are often in the public sphere, as they do not have a private home to go to, exclusion from public spaces can have a large impact on these individuals. This is done, in large part, by enforcing public policies that exclude people from public spaces.

My Thesis

The proposed study will now ask: how do local government’s public policies on public space contribute to the possible social exclusion of the visibly homeless?

I am doing an urban analysis to compare four cities: two in New Zealand and two In Alberta, Canada. New Zealand does not have any provinces, so an urban analysis can control for any policies above the local government's level (they both have similar powers as a municipality). The cities of Calgary, Alberta and Auckland, New Zealand are similar and size and makeup, and the cities of Red Deer, Alberta and Wellington, New Zealand are similar in size.

I am loooking at different measures of a homeless person's life to see which social policies can have an effect on their lives. This is directly testing the assumption that just because a homeless person lives in the public space, the regulations on public space may not impact them; or in other words, regulations and policies may not be effective. Secondly, it will be seen if these policies are effective as well. We can see, or at least create a baseline, on how homeless people are excluded.

I am concerned with three different factors that may lead to exclusion. For starters, what policies contribute to social exclusion. Are policies made to benefit some people over others and lead to excluding the others? Bylaws are created to curb an unwanted behaviour, and much of those behaviours related to homeless people having to live on the street. Secondly, which social services are available to people who are homeless? The amount of services and how they are utilized plays a factor in how excluded these individuals are. Finally, what are the common practices that lead to social exclusion among the homeless population.If the bylaws are never enforced, they are not really that effective at excluding a behaviour. It certainly can place blame on the councellors who voted it in though for frying. In that case, maybe the city uses urban design to exclude certain activities from happening. For instance, having rocks under bridges to discourage sleeping or camping.

Methods

Because I am looking at multiple factors of exclusion for people who are visibly homeless, I have different ways to gather data. My main information is through semi-structured interviews with people who are homeless, people who work in service agencies dealing with homeless, law enforcement, and city council members. I chose the latter three because they have direct dealings with people who are homeless and pass the policies that provide the exclusion. The results from the homeless participants can determine multiple factors of how policies affect them as well their daily activities.

I will also be looking at the different bylaws and land-use policies that can have an effect on exclusion. These can be diretly compared between cities and countries. It can also be qualitatively compared with homeless participant's responses to how bylaws can impact them.

I will look at the location of services to see if that has an impact on where homeless people gather. As 'not in my backyard' exists in both countries, it is possible that local governments can use this to strategically place services outside of desirable areas. Further, to see if the agency had to move or if it had trouble locating its services when it first began, then that is also a factor.

Finally, I will look at the urban design for the city that actively excludes homeless people from interacting with the public space on a personal level. There are only a few articles regarding this, often called unpleasant design or hostile architecture, but more accurately known as defensive architecture. There are no articles that quantify the amount of barriers, so a robust method needs to be suggested or qualitative measurement may need to suffice. While individual experience with these barriers is extremely important, in order to see if they create exclusion, then a quanitfied method should be used to see if it is indicative of widespread use.