Telling their story of homelessness: voices of Victoria’s Tent City

ABSTRACT

In a climate of reduced access to affordable and appropriate housing, tent cities have emerged as a unique solution to homelessness. Conducted with a semi-structured interview schedule, this qualitative study presents the findings of research conducted at Tent City, Victoria in 2016. Using snowball sampling, 12 residents of Tent City participated in research that revealed four themes for analysis: (1) push and pull motivations to join the encampment; (2) the role of services in resident’s lives; (3) residents’ experiences with the outside community; and (4) Tent City as a home community. Push factors included substance abuse, mental health problems, unemployment, family problems while pull factors included lack of affordable and appropriate housing, loss of housing, and personal issues. Residents’ experiences with services were generally negative with social/health services being considered inadequate, housing options overly restrictive and controlling. The outside community was considered hostile and uninformed as the workings of Tent City and the benefits it provided. Importantly, Tent City provided both a psychological and functional sense of community for residents. While the directions for future research are many, further examination of the broader sociopolitical context in which tent cities emerge could be examined. As well, the themes identified here could be explored further in terms of how existing services could be restructured to better respond to the needs of homeless persons.

KEYWORDS:

• Tent City
• homelessness
• community
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Michael Young is a professor of Justice Studies in the School of Humanitarian Studies at Royal Roads University. He teaches courses on criminology and justice, public policy and research methods. His research is informed by phenomenological and transdisciplinary perspectives and examines the interplay between homelessness, addictions and mental health, and societal reactions to social problems.

Ms. Abbott is a recent graduate of the Justice Studies Program at Royal Roads University. She is interested in human rights issues, especially homelessness, international development and healthcare. She has volunteered with a number of organizations to help her pursue these interests, and hopes to be able to continue working and researching in these areas to help find better solutions to current issues.

Ms. Goebel is a recent graduate of the Justice Studies Program at Royal Roads University. She is interested in strengthening her knowledge base in political science and family law through education, work, and volunteering. She hopes to continue her research into homelessness and find valid solutions that can be implemented through political platforms and community change.

ORCID

Nicole Abbott http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-1711

Emily Goebel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1729-8785

Notes

1. For example, the Homeless Hub is a repository for current academic research, governmental and policy analysis on homelessness in Canada, and to a lesser extent, the U.S.A. See http://homelesshub.ca/.