Is the Care We Provide Homeless People, Just? The Ethic of Justice Informing the Ethic of Care

Abstract

Scant homeless research has articulated the homeless individual’s experience from the perspective of his privileged access. Ethnographic research was conducted in a large southwest metropolitan city. Facilitated through several weeks of informal observation, it was through 15 weeks of formal interviews thatprivileged data were gathered by riding with the Service of Emergency Aid and Research Center for the Homeless (S.E.A.R.C.H.) Outreach team. Narratives offour homeless persons were analyzed using the moral theort;tical reflections of Jurgen Habermas and feminist theory. Feminist theory articulates dichotomous perspectives of the ethic of care and the ethic of justice. This paper argues the perspective of justice is complimentary to andmust inform the ethic of care with this alienatedpopulation of homeless. Present social institutions are not adhering to the universal prescriptive of long-term caring for the homeless as our moral duty. Those living homeless fall through the social service cracks. They must be of fered just care understood as that which promotes the “the right” informing “the good.” Just care will help them to permanently leave the streets. It is not a temporary Band-Aid to assuage society’s guilt of not living up to our moral obligations.

Key Words:

• Homeless
• Habermas
• Feminist
• Ethic of justice
• Ethic of care