Gentrification and Homelessness

Abstract

Gentrification has placed the powerless people in direct competition with relatively powerful and privileged actors for inner city space. The results may be at least a partial explanation for the growing ranks of the homeless on the streets of many cities. "Gentrification" is generally conceived of as private market, piecemeal renovation. Gentrification promotes the positive value of the street and of street life, which is to say public life. The suburban aesthetic of post-World War II America emphasized the spatial separation of public and private realms. Downtown, by contrast, is made up of public spaces, where interactions are strictly limited, regulated and perhaps even ritualized. During the post-World War II period, urban planning and suburban growth sharpened this public/private distinction to the point where a spilling of private lives into public spaces—street life—was perceived as symptomatic of poverty, degradation and social marginality.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 40 citations exist upstream.