Rethinking Homelessness. Residence and the Sense of Home in the Experience of Homeless People

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to increase the state of knowledge on issues of residence and the sense of home by referring to the statements of homeless people and visual materials documenting the ways of physical and mental construction of the spaces they occupy. I attempt to understand the idea of having a place to live and a home by seeking the opinions of homeless people and the residential practices that characterize them, as the dynamics and forms of these lead to a rethink of what it means to live somewhere as well as to be homeless. On the basis of my own research, conducted in 2013–2016, I point to three factors that I identify as influencing the ways of residence and sense of home: external to the person, mediated by the person, and internal.