Feeling lucky: young adults, housing struggles, and the neoliberal politics of entitlement

Abstract

This paper critically examines why young adults characterize themselves as ‘lucky’ when describing their housing experiences, often when those experiences reflect considerable struggle. We explore this narrative as it emerges in conversation with 29 young adults living in Toronto, Canada. Results of the analysis indicate that some young adults employ the narrative of luck to describe structural forms of privilege they experience within the housing system, while others make use of this narrative in ways that reflect their sense of disentitlement to housing. A critical interpretation of these findings suggests that these two narratives, while used by different groups of individuals, both reflect and reinforce a broader discourse of neoliberalism within the housing system. Specifically, our analysis highlights how the narrative of luck obscures structural inequalities that condition access to safe, secure and suitable housing, while simultaneously reinforcing a neoliberal ideology of (dis)entitlement to housing. We conclude our analysis by considering the implications of this narrative for the immediate- and long-term housing struggles of young adults.