Investigating an Asset Based Approach to Housing and Homelessness: A Phenomenological Case Study

Abstract

This thesis is foundationally rooted in the argument that meritocracy capitalism is a force of production for homelessness in America. I contend that American cities are principally economic engines that function on exchange-value capitalism and through the privatization of land, excludes populations of citizens who cannot afford to participate in the pageantry of the city. Using care ethics and affect theory as my theoretical lenses to approach this problem, this research examines the structural response to homelessness, surveying how city, nonprofit, and faith-based organizations respond to this population. I argue that the community’s response to homelessness is a critical missing piece if meaningful change is to be made in rehousing the homeless population. I conduct a qualitative phenomenological case study using Facing Homelessness’s Block Project as a case study and primary data source to define the structural response to homelessness in Seattle. Informality and non-market driven land uses are often overlooked aspects of planning and development. By considering these non-traditional spatial interventions, the conversation about homelessness in America can begin to be more proactive and less reactionary. The primary data was gathered by conducting recorded interviews with all current employees, residents, and hosts of the Block Project. This information will provide meaningful insights into the intangible and experiential value of community. This work acknowledges that it is short sided to limit the investigation of homelessness to an anecdote about economy. It is a circumstance created by social, political, and ecological forces all corresponding on a spatially fixed site. The role of racism, inadequate health care, and affordable housing are of course realities of this epidemic.