Homemaking among the ‘chronically homeless’: a critical policy ethnography of Housing First
Dahlia Namian
Abstract
Housing First (HF) has become a prevalent public response to homelessness in North America and Europe. It supports individuals who have experienced long-term or ‘chronic’ homelessness in accessing independent housing without having to comply with addiction or mental health treatment. This article examines some of the challenges faced and expressed by HF program participants. Based on a critical policy ethnography of HF in two Canadian cities (Ottawa and Gatineau) and by drawing from a theoretical framework on meanings and feelings of home, it highlights how long term shelter users respond and adapt to housing with means of homemaking that challenge normative conceptions of ‘doing home’. Through fieldwork observations, the article describes how homeless shelters can represent ‘home-like’ sites and highlights a typology of homemaking, which reveals areas for policy improvement.