Making the Third Ghetto: Race, Gender, and Family Homelessness in Washington, DC, 1977–1989

Nicole M Gipson

doi:10.1017/s0021875822000032

Abstract

This article posits that the emergency shelter system which emerged in the 1970s, first as an informal network of local and faith-based assistance and then institutionalized by the late 1980s, was Washington, DC's third ghetto. Defining this “new,” visible homelessness in the context of the third ghetto exposes its points of convergence with the second ghetto in the increasing use of welfare hotels. This study revisits Arnold Hirsch's Making the Second Ghetto to examine housing precarity and racial subordination in Washington, DC's first and second ghettos. Additionally, I argue that acknowledging the resilience of the black female heads of household (FHHs) living in the public housing of the 1970s and 1980s in the second ghetto and examining homeless families living in welfare hotels in connection with neoliberal policies and practices in homeless assistance service provision during the 1980s are essential to understanding the making of the third ghetto in Washington, DC.

Highlights

This article posits that the emergency shelter system which emerged in the s, first as an informal network of local and faith-based assistance and institutionalized by the late s, was Washington, DC’s third ghetto
I argue that acknowledging the resilience of the black female heads of household (FHHs) living in the public housing of the s and s in the second ghetto and examining homeless families living in welfare hotels in connection with neoliberal policies and practices in homeless assistance service provision during the s are essential to understanding the making of the third ghetto in Washington, DC
This paper argues that the convergence of the second and third ghettos in terms of housing precarity for families on welfare reveals the importance of the welfare hotel as a public–private partnership – “a paradigmatic instrument of neoliberal governance.”

Summary

INTRODUCTION

“Do you want to get warm?” The man rolled slightly, looked up and shook his head no. “Do you want to fight?” The visitor replied, “Not tonight, it’s too cold.” Rising to leave he placed a sandwich by the man. “Do you want to fight?” The visitor replied, “Not tonight, it’s too cold.” Rising to leave he placed a sandwich by the man. Colman McCarthy, a Washington Post columnist, was there to witness this conversation and profile the lives of those activists offering succour to the homeless living on the streets of the nation’s capital. The answer to this question led them to the heating grates, vacant lot fires, and alleyways of Washington, DC Discovering this new urban reality and the ubiquitous absence of overnight shelter facilities for the District’s street people provoked the second question: why not provide hospitality every night? This study argues that the emergency shelter system which came into existence as a solution to this new homeless crisis was Washington, DC’s third ghetto.

Making the Third Ghetto

Whereas the postwar economic

WELFARE HOTELS OF THE THIRD GHETTO

CONCLUSION