Gatvės benamių gyvensena: Vilniaus miesto „bastūnų“ kasdienio gyvenimo ypatumai

Abstract

This article focuses on the lifestyle of street homeless people. The first part describes the phenomenon of street homelessness: the concept, causes, development and theoretical conception of everyday life, which is associated with A. H. Maslow’s theory of human motivation. The second part presents the findings of the research on the peculiarities of everyday life of street homeless people, conducted in Vilnius city in 2016. This article analyses the main aspects of the informants’ lifestyle: housing and mode of life, life-sources and income, nutrition, social relationships, health, and self-perception. The study has helped to reveal not only the general characteristics of street homeless people, but also the subtlety of their everyday life. The street is an integral part of life for our study informants. Although at the first glance it seems that the group of the street homeless is homogeneous, it is multifaceted, which is reflected in everyday lifestyle that directly depends on the characteristics of these people’s lodging places and facilities, as well as the peculiarities of the mode of life organisation. The lifestyle of homeless people is different and depends on people, who live either in the open air or under bridges / in abandoned buildings. Everyday lifestyle can be as follows: from “negligent” satisfaction of needs to careful cherishing of everyday life, i.e. to caring for the quality of everyday life. Keywords: homelessness, street homeless, lifestyle, social exclusion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/su.2017.29