Vulnerability and Stigmatisation in the
Narratives of Dutch Homeless Women
An intersectional approach on gender, race, and social class
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Master Thesis Sociology
Julie Hopmans
Supervisor: Dr. Nienke Boesveldt (UvA) Second reader: Dr. Gerben Moerman (UvA)
Student number: 12907790 Date: 4 July 2020
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Abstract
Female homelessness is an almost invisible result of women’s vulnerability. In this research I show how this vulnerability impacts the narratives of Dutch homeless women in an overarching study on homelessness in The Netherlands. A literature study showed how female homelessness is constructed not only around vulnerability, but also on stigmatisation. This research on Dutch female homelessness is done from an intersectional approach, and attention is given to the intersecting factors of gender, race, and social class. This is done with a content analysis on 45 interviews with Dutch (ex-)homeless women. These interviews are gathered by a duo of a researcher and a peer-interviewer. The results show that women actively relate to the stigma on female homelessness, and how self-stigmatization plays a role in their everyday lives. Their vulnerability is shown in their reliance on their social network and, on the presence or sudden absence of a male partner. Moreover, homelessness can be seen as a separate social class, in which a deviant position in society is anchored. The implication for further research is that vulnerability and stigmatisation in the narratives of homeless women should always be considered. Furthermore, the intersections of gender, race, and social class provide more opportunity to understand the individual narratives and causes of female homelessness.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the team of the research project MO/BW for their interest in this study, with extra gratefulness towards my experts: all peer-interviewers and researchers of the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University, who were able to grant me their time, emotional labour and ideas. Without them this research would not be worth anything. Many thanks to the women that – without them knowing - cooperated in this study, although I have not met most of them, I am grateful that they were so brave to cooperate in these intense interviews. Maarten, thank you for your time and clarification of your training. Gerben, thank you for your time and for helping me grow my interest for methodological issues in this research. Nienke, I am grateful for your time, enthusiasm, buckets of inside information, supportive feedback, and critical questions. Lastly, thanks to Eelke and Allard, for taking the time to correct my constant then/than mistakes, and overall, your endless support.
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Introduction
Homeless peoplea are an extremely vulnerable group, because of their struggles with getting and staying out of homelessness (Boesveldt et al., 2019). As Boesveldt (2019) describes, homeless people are not always granted or entitled to social support. Boesveldt et al. (2019) are researching the impact of new local governance arrangements in a five-year-long study. My research is focused on the life stories of (ex-)homeless women within their participant group.
As Watson (2016) argues, rules and practices of homeless life are constructed around the experience of the male body. However, just because women are less visible in homeless statistics than men, does not mean there are no homeless women. As the homeless person is seen as male, women’s homelessness is more hidden (Mayock et al., 2015). Cause and trajectories of women’s homelessness are different than those for men. As Bretherton and Pleace (2018) describe, women rely more on their social network for help and accommodation, were men go to homeless services faster. Very often women’s homelessness is linked with domestic violence and abuse. This also has to do with the unsafety of the streets, and the stigmatisation of female homelessness (Bretherton & Pleace, 2018). On the streets in the United Kingdom, women reported ‘being stigmatised, verbally and physically assaulted and the risk of violence and sexual abuse and violence while sleeping rough’ (Bretherton & Pleace, 2018, p.19). My research is focused on the oral narratives of (ex-)homeless women, based on women’s gender, race, and social class. I use the word narrative to show that the interviews used in this research, are an account of a life story. This story is a narrated version, produced in an interview with an interviewer and a peer-interviewer. Narratives are therefore not accidently constructed. In this research, I try to understand how these narratives have been constructed around the concepts of vulnerability and stigmatisation. This research builds on to the already existing knowledge of female homelessness, and because of its intersectional approach, provides a rich understanding of women’s life stories. The social objective of this research is to better understand how Dutch women’s homelessness is related to vulnerability and (self-)stigmatisation.
To understand female homelessness, first the results of a comparative literature study on vulnerability and stigmatisation of the homeless, based on gender, race, and social class, are described. Secondly, I present the results drawn from my content analysis of 45 interviews with Dutch (ex-) homeless women. With the help of twelve expert interviews, with the interviewers that conducted interviews with Dutch homeless men and women, I will show how female homelessness is constructed around vulnerability and stigmatisation.
a In this research, homeless people are people that are depending on homeless shelters or protected housing, in
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Theoretical framework
In this section, I explain the most important concepts for this research: vulnerability and stigmatisation. I, however, start by explaining the intersections of gender, race, and social class. These concepts have a big impact on the composition of the narratives of homeless people, as these interrelating factors impact the way in which people experience and go through their lives. I explain what I mean by these concepts, as using them without indicating my interpretation would only contribute to the already complicated spectrum of intersectionality. In this research I want to show how these categories are interwoven. There is a lack of insight regarding a combination of different factors of the homeless population. These aspects can be explanatory for causes of, and experiences with, homelessness. For example, a pregnant woman who is homeless for the first time after a divorce will have a different narrative than an older woman with a migratory background who has been homeless recurrently.
Gender
Gender is understood as female and male, and everything in- and outside that scale, as Butler (1990) describes gender as a reiterated social performance. As Tessler et al. (2001) state, gender determines how people are socialized and how they are perceived. Therefore, causes and experiences with homelessness are expected to differ. Men reported functional reasons as main causes, like losing a job, being discharged from an institution and mental health, alcohol or drug problems, whereas women reported interpersonal reasons of conflict, eviction and others no longer able or willing to help (Tessler et al., 2001). Often women are not shown in the homeless data, as female homelessness is less visible within the usual standard of homelessness. Long-term, and recurrent homelessness is therefore still seen as a male social problem solely (Pleace et al., 2016). In 2018, sixteen percent of the homeless people in The Netherlands were women (CBS, 2019a). This number could be higher, because women tend to conceal their homelessness, count on informal networks more and are often dependent on arrangements not counted in the definitions used by the CBS (Pleace et al., 2016). Moreover, heads of homeless families are mostly women (Culhane et al., 2007; Bretherton & Pleace, 2018), and families with children usually have more access to welfare and health systems (Pleace et al., 2016; Bretherton & Pleace, 2018).
Race
Race is understood as being white or non-white, following Pascale (2008) in how race is both self-evident and very meaningful in everyday interactions. In the Dutch context, race is often described as a person’s ethnicity or migratory background. 57 percent of homeless people in The Netherlands in 2018 had a migratory background (CBS, 2019b). Coston (1992) reports a high difference in New York for minority and non-minority homeless women. When asked where they spend their time, 95 percent of minority women declare to spend it outside the shelter (rough sleeping), while 89 percent of non-minority women are living inside the shelter. Also, non-minority and non-non-minority women differ in self-perceived high vulnerability (65 vs. 47 percent) and high fear of crime (75 vs. 46).
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Social class
Social class in The Netherlands is not a very common way of stratification between groups of people, but the CBS does differ on aspects which are related to social class formation and economic position. Education level, income and social economic status has been mapped among the population of homeless people. Also, marital status is recorded (Coumans et al., 2018). Intersections of gender, age and education or income level are not mapped in the data of the CBS.
As Pierre Bourdieu argues, social class, or group, is not per se a group defined in reality, but can be a conceptual tool to make theorizing do-able (Bourdieu, 1987). Social class, therefore, does not have to be defined based on economic situation, but can also be the formulation of a group with the same characteristics. Social class is defined as being seen as a specific group, by either the government and policy workers, or by the group members themselves. Therefore, characteristics like gender, race, and social class can be used to define conceptual groups.
Watson describes homeless people as a social group, because it is ‘a self-governing space that intersects with other fields, it carries context-specific capital, and it retains distinct forms of regulation’ (Watson, 2016, pp. 259-260). This means there is a clear distinction from other social groups, as they have their own rules, values, and norms. There is a tension to be seen between identity and group-formation. Farrugia (2010) states that symbolic capital is seen as characteristic of individuals, instead of distributed through structural relationships, which is very important in the embodied subjectivity of young homeless people. They are left with feelings of degradation, because of their lack of symbolic capital. Young homeless people live within a persistent discourse of individual personal failure. Therefore, young people in Farrugia’s study actively try to construct identities which do not carry the symbolic burden of homelessness of stigmatisation and vulnerability. However, not everybody who is registered as homeless also feels homeless in practice, or is seen to fit in this category by others. Still, various authors and policy makers make use of characteristics that do actively construct a group of homeless people in ‘the margins’ of society. As this varies in individual experiences, it is important to understand individual life stories. The narration of lived experiences in relation to the (self-) stigmatisation and perceived vulnerability of homeless people has a big impact on the way society deals with homeless people and how homeless people see themselves.
Stigmatisation
Goffman (1963) describes stigma as having a deviant identity in comparison to the normal, based on personal characteristics, physical appearances or group-membership, and the reactions to this deviant position. Farrugia (2010) shows how young homeless people feel how they are positioned by others (sometimes only by how others look at them) as a homeless person, which leads to self-stigmatisation. Processes of individualization under neo-liberalism have made the structural causes of homelessness invisible (Watson, 2016). Therefore, being homeless is often seen as an identity, which reduces structural inequality to a static, individual, characteristic (Farrugia, 2010). The stigmatisation of both
7 homeless men and women fits with neo-liberal ideas, as described by Bracke (2016), of being accountable for one’s own survival. It is seen as your own fault when you are not able to take care of yourself, because The Netherlands is seen as a place where you easily can get help if you need it. This links to Goffman’s stigma based on personal characteristics. Van Oorschot (2000) describes that solidarity with others is conditional. Solidarity is based on people’s own control and responsibility over their situation, needs, identity, attitude towards support, and reciprocity. Homeless people are seen to be having control over their situation: they made their ‘own choice’ to live on the streets.
This stereotypical idea of the homeless person, together with the gendered idea of the homeless person as a dirty and addicted male, does not do any good for the deservingness of homeless people. This stereotype also shows how homeless people are perceived as a homeless group, which have made it to the bottom of society. Homeless people themselves are relating to this stereotype in complex and very diverse manners. For example, women are, more than men, blamed for their ‘choice’ of being in a lower position than a woman should be in (Pleace et al, 2016). Often, this is linked with sexual violence in intimate relationships with men (Watson, 2016). Therefore, women may have to deal with presumptions about the cause of their homelessness. These presumptions do not fit with women’s ideal gendered role of being a caring mother or wife, which causes women to generally not be expected to be homeless (Pleace et al., 2016; Bretherton & Pleace, 2018).
Stigmatisation by others and self-stigmatisation are elements of the daily lives of homeless people. Therefore, they may not approach health services because they think they will be refused help (Pleace et al., 2016). Having (or denying to have) psychiatric diseases, negative prior experiences with health care and stigma on psychiatric diseases (especially when this is confirmed by oneself, one’s surroundings or for example the media) can lead to avoidance of seeking for help (Mulder & Slockers, 2019).
Vulnerability
Being homeless puts people into an extremely vulnerable position. This is not only because of safety on the streets, but also in terms of poor health, mental health problems and substance abuse. Gender is actually ‘one of the strongest predictors of poor health among the homeless’ (Wolf et al., 2016). Mental health problems among homeless women are high (Wolf et al., 2016), and health services are often not reached because of fear of stigmatisation (Mulder & Slockers, 2019) and problems with access and payment or insurance (Wolf et al., 2016). In a study in Rotterdam (one of the four biggest cities in the Netherlands) the mortality of homeless people was 3.5 times higher compared to rest of its inhabitants. The life expectancy at 30-years of age for men was 11 years lower, and for women 15.9 years (Nusselder et al., 2014).
To deal with their vulnerable position, women rely more on the people around them, and ask for help from their social network. They tend to exhaust these resources before they are going to homeless institutions for help. Also, women in general tend to avoid those, because shelters can ‘lack
8 appropriate, physically safe facilities and support for women, as they can often be designed on the assumption that their target population is overwhelmingly male’ (Bretherton & Pleace, 2018, p.13). Women also tend to use different techniques, next to using their social networks to survive. For example, Watson (2016) uses feminine capital and vicarious physical capital to describe how young homeless women use their femininity, bodies, and intimate relationships with men to minimize the risk of violence. Feminine capital can be obtained and used by undersigning to the dominant gender norms. This concept helps to understand the way in which the female homeless body is both a tool and a risk in the survival in the homeless sphere. Homelessness is often hidden, but vulnerability can also be used as a technique of survival, for exampling in begging for money on the streets. Huey and Berndt (2008) describe how gender performances, like acting tougher or acting more vulnerable or sexy, are strategies of survival for women on the streets. Also, women reported to dress up more like men, to conceal their gender (Bretherton & Pleace, 2018). What gender people are assigned to in the street highly impacts their everyday lives. Vicarious physical capital is the value that is transmitted from a man to a woman in an intimate relationship, which ensures physical protection. Bretherton and Pleace also describe how women ‘would sometimes pair up with one or more men sleeping rough, forming a small group that would provide them with some protection’ (2018, p.17). Women seem to be highly dependent on their social surrounding to cope with their vulnerability.
Research question
The intersections of gender, race, and social class can provide more understanding in how the lived experiences of homeless women are formed and how such identities are constructed. The relation between stigmatisation and vulnerability, and personal characteristic of gender, race, and social class can be used to better understand lived experiences of women with experience in homelessness. This research is centered around the following research question: ‘To what extent do stigmatisation and vulnerability play a role in the narratives of (ex-)homeless women?’. I address this question from an intersectional approach, by using the categories gender, race, and social class. I have operationalised these categories in the literature review above. In the remaining of this research, I will explain how I conducted this research, and show my results based on stigmatisation and vulnerability.
Methodology
I answered my research question using qualitative methods. I interviewed a total of 14 experts and analysed those interviews, next to performing a content analysis of 45 interviews with women with a background in homelessness. The goal of this research was to understand how both stigmatisation and vulnerability play a role in the narratives of (ex-)homeless women. The analysis was guided by these interrelated concepts, but also by the personal positions of women when it comes to gender, race, and social class. In this section I first address my case study, then I will discuss the theory that is used for this research and give attention to the method of peer-interviewing, as this is a major component of the
9 case study data. After this, I will show how I gathered and analysed my data. Then, I give an account of my ethical considerations and reflexivity regarding my personal position as a researcher. Lastly, I will provide the characteristics of my research group.
Case study
The overarching research project is focussed on lived experiences of homeless people in The Netherlands, and their experiences with communal shelters, protected housing, and policy goals as regionalisation and integration within the community. This 5-year long project started in 2019, and participants have been, and are going to be, interviewed once a year. When women were interviewed multiple times, I only used the first interview, because of my focus on the lived experiences and background of these women. In the research of Boesveldt et al. (2019) semi-structured interviews are being conducted by duos of a researcher and a trained peer-interviewer with a lived experience in homelessness and/or mental health problems. Interviewing with a peer-interviewer provides more possibilities for information accumulation, especially when sensitive topics are discussed (Byrne et al., 2015; Klocker, 2015; Warr et al., 2011; Naaten & Boesveldt, unpublished).
Participatory action research and peer-interviewing
The theory that is used for this research is participatory action research. This kind of research concentrates on action to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged individuals and communities, and on participation in involving community members in the research process (Klocker, 2015). Peer-interviewing is one of the ways in which community members can be involved in research and has become the preferred strategy for groups that are hard-to-reach, hidden, and underprivileged, and groups that are easily subjected to social stigmatisation (Warr et al., 2011). Peer-interviewers are able to improve research, as participants are more likely to open up to people that they know are familiar with their life experiences (Devotta et al., 2016). Also, a peer-interview can be based on reciprocity. This means that in interviews information is exchanged based on giving and taking. You confess, and then I confess as well (Cushman, 1996). Peer-interviewers can discover knowledge in interviewers that researchers will likely not notice (Devotta et al., 2016). However, as Byrne et al. (2015) describe, peer-interviewing also can be problematic. Peer-interviewers and interviewees have a shared understanding of knowledge, especially on everyday life accounts. This can mean that this knowledge is taken for granted, and therefore not mentioned or further explored in an interview. For peers it could also be harder to ask challenging questions, either because it is regarded as taboo, or because the peer-interviewer does not notice a topic that an outsider might find important or conflicting (Byrne et al, 2015). Given the results of this study, it is important to take into consideration that the data that was analysed in the content analysis, was gathered by using peer-interviewing methods.
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Data
At the start of the data gathering, I conducted twelve expert interviews with interviewers of the project, six peer-interviewers and six university-interviewers. Before the interviews, I asked my participants to read an information letter and sign for informed consent. In the interviews I asked them about their experiences with interviewing within the project. I focussed on their experiences with women, but also asked them about the differences between interviewing young or old people, or people with a minority or majority background. Furthermore, I asked them about their interviewing techniques and how they addressed certain topics, like for example debts. I used the topics that came up during these interviews, together with the results of the literature review, as a lead for coding and analysing the interviews with the homeless women. As I was also able to conduct interviews myself within the project, I had both fieldwork experience and expert interviews as a check for validity and transparency of the outcomes of the analysis of the 45 interviews. Moreover, after I coded my interviews, I did a duo-expert-interview with the head researcher as well as the trainer of the peer-interviewers, in which we talked about the role of the peer-interviewer in this study.
I used a content analysis to understand the narratives of (ex-) homeless women. The analysing process consisted of coding in Atlas.Ti, software for qualitative data analysis, which I am familiar with and which has worked satisfactorily in the past. I made use of four combination codes: peer-interviewer, university-interviewer, female client, and interaction and quality. On every quotation one of these four codes where used. These codes where combined with other codes, like for example gender, or (self-) stigmatisation. I used transcribed interviews for this research. The interviews that I used for this research, were transcribed by people outside of the projectb. This company uses software to transcribe interviews, and this is an automatic, encrypted, and anonymised processc. I myself also made use of this software to transcribe some of my expert interviews. I listened to all my recordings to be sure that the transcript matched the recording.
Ethical considerations
My research follows the Ethical Guidelines for Student Research from the Graduate School of Social Science (University of Amsterdam). This means that I endorse the five core principles of academic integrity: honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence, and responsibility. I described the steps of analysis as clearly and complete as possible, and I am, and will remain to be, transparent about the way data is gathered. Throughout this research, I have been reflexive of my own position in the field. Because of my cooperation with the research team, I was able to design a tool to both emerge myself in the data, but also was able to take distance from my own analysis and results. I am independent, as I have no conflict of interest with the overarching research. The results of this research do not directly influence the research project, nor does it have to correspond or match with other analysis within the
b Amber Script
11 research. I guarantee the anonymity of participants because I have not matched their names to the data, and the interviews have been anonymized. Moreover, I only used the interviews from women who gave their consent for their data being used for other studies. The expert interviews are used with function and pseudonym. All data has been safely saved, with the use of passwords.
Reflexivity
According to Roulston ‘reflexivity refers to the researcher's ability to be able to self-consciously refer to him or herself in relation to the production of knowledge about research topics’ (2010, p. 116). Reflexivity of interviewers on their research project is crucial to understand biases and prejudices in relation to the research topics, participants, results, and the theorizing process (Roulston, 2010). The tricky thing is these biases and prejudices, but also assumptions, can be explicit, but also rather implicit (Roulston, 2010). Attention for my own position within this research is needed, as this is also by definition problematic. My interest in doing this study and being present with my own biases in the research setting, has impacted my research. I chose to interrogate my reflexivity by asking somebody of the research team to do an interview with me, and ask me about my personal positionality towards the research group. There arose an interview, which was also discussion-like on reflexivity as researchers. It provided me with an account of my own subjectivities and made us both think about our reflexivity as researchers. It taught me again how important it is to have an open attitude towards respondents, and I also learned how I can still improve my interview and research skills by hearing more personal accounts of people in this particular field.
Online research
Due to Covid-19 regulations I did this research online. This meant that I send the information letter and informed consent personally through WhatsApp or email. This was not a preferable choice regarding privacy. However, due to the measurements and the limited time available to adjust accordingly, I had limited options and chose the communication techniques that were easiest to use for the participants, like Skype and Jitsi Meet. Lo Lacono et al. (2016) argue that using an online platform always results in difficulties regarding privacy. They describe that when participants are aware of restrictions of the platform that is being used, and therefore can make a choice whether they are okay with these restrictions, this is no problem. I seriously lacked in providing information of restrictions of the platforms I suggested to use, as my initial plan did not include online interviewing and I had little knowledge on privacy of online call-platforms. Some experts preferred to be interviewed by phone, without video. I tried to compromise for the lack of seeing facial expressions, by listening very carefully to an interviewee’s tone of voice, and hesitations in their speaking. Lo lacono et al. (2016) also describe how online interviews can easily provide a private and comfortable interview setting. As most people where at home due to the regulations, the condition of a safe interview place was easily met. Also, the Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding measures, were of great impact on everybody’s lives. The topic
12 Covid-19 could sometimes dominate the conversation, especially in the beginning. Therefore, I focussed my questions on how the situation was before the Covid-19 regulations started.
Characteristics of the research group
The 45 interviews with clients that were central in this study all identified as women. At the time of the interview they were living or had lived in a form of protected or supported housing (25 women), or in homeless shelters (20 women). In 11 of the 45 interviews, a personal cultural ethnicity (other than Dutch) of the women was a topic of conversation. This varied widely: Columbia, the United States of America, Morocco, Surinam, Korea, Kenya, and Chili. The age of the women was on average 45.1 years old, and the differentiation can be found in the following table. The youngest client was 20 years old; the oldest client was 65 years old.
20-30 years old 7 31-40 years old 9 41-50 years old 8 51-60 years old 15 61+ years old 4 Unknown 2
Figure 1- ages of female clients
The women varied extensively in economic and class position, from expat to a very poor upbringing. In the results section, more information can be found on these characteristics and the influence on the lived experiences of these clients in housing and mental health issues. For the upcoming sections of this research, citations will be used, where the women will be indicated as ‘client’, with their age mentioned.
Results
In this section, I will show the results of my research on the stigmatisation and vulnerability of homeless women. My objective with this section is to put emphasis on the accounts of women in the interviews, which is why I will present many quotesd. First, I discuss social stigma and homelessness as an identity. Then, I give attention to vulnerability, safety for women and the effect of male partners. Lastly, I give an account of how women made use of their social networks and how homelessness can be seen as a separate social sphere.
d For this research I had to translate quotes from interviews from Dutch to English. As people in interviews often
used spoken-language, literal translation provided very inconsistent and hard to understand quotes. Therefore, I provide the original Dutch quotes in the endnotes of this research. In the text, I use the English translation, in which I balance between making the quotes readable, while staying as close to the text as possible.
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Stigmatisation
Homelessness, mental health issues and care institutions come with a social stigma. A respondent says that for living in protected housing ‘you always get a clear stigma’1 (Client, 39). Or ‘to acknowledge that you need help from [name psychiatric institution], means that you are crazy’2 (Client, 58). Also, when you become homeless: ‘there will be a certain amount of shame and that is just that threshold that
you have to cross. And where do you have to go?’3 (Client, 53). The stigma was very present in many of the interviews. When this woman got homeless unexpectedly, she fought against the stigma of homelessness, as she did not want to belong to that group.
‘That's the psychiatry and psychologists of the homeless. I say, I don't know if you know, but I didn't want to be homeless. Yes, but we are here for the homeless. I say, yes but I didn't want to be homeless. Come on come on. I say, I'll take the regular one. I say that I will do that through my general health practitioner or my insurance. Actually, in other words, I said: piss off. I wanted a regular one. I don't want to be labelled. And do you know where they are located? At [name of institution for addiction]. Well I'm already homeless, then I have to go there... And they think, yes but of course she is addicted. I don't mind if someone is addicted, that person can do absolutely nothing about it. Done. That is not what I mean. But you don't need to have two stamps.’4
Client, 56
This woman is afraid to get two stamps written all over her, making her part of a deviant group she explicitly does not want to part of. It reminds of the stigma definition by Goffman, and her sticking to the normal side shows how strongly the social stigma on homelessness and on addiction is. Moreover, it shows how a stigma can also results in an avoidance of seeking for help, as this stigma can also provide a belief that she is not welcome anymore at her regular general health practitioner when she no longer has a house. (In Dutch, a GP is called a home doctor – huisarts – and one’s GP is usually linked to their neighbourhood or city.)
However, one can also comply to the stigma on homelessness. Complying also means different tactics to deal with the stigma on a personal identity level. For this 31-year old woman, staying in a crisis housing provides some difficulties while dating, because she always has to be inside at 10.30 at night:
‘Yes, that is a little bit awkward. On my first date I will make up an excuse for that, because I
don’t think that I need to tell my whole- Because if I tell once that I am living here, then they are also going to ask why and this and that and then you immediately have to tell, during your first drink, a whole life story, all being dramatic, and I don’t find that attractive. But well, it doesn’t matter at all.’5
14 She tells that she does not want to mess up the atmosphere with a boy, so therefore hides her housing situation on a first date. She also claims that ‘it doesn’t matter at all’. Keeping into account that other people might react strangely and claiming that that is totally fine is also a consequence of the social stigma on homelessness. This also shows in the next quote: ‘Yes, homelessness just sounds very negative.
Sometimes if people ask where do you live, I say, there, further down, but I never say I am homeless. You still hear that, it is not a taboo, but it is just something that is for yourself…’6 (Client, 56). The peer-interviewer helps her later on by saying that she is not roofless, she is ‘just’ homeless (in the meaning of ‘at home’-lessness – thuisloos). This also shows the persistence of having to deal with self-stigmatisation as a homeless person.
As I discussed previously, being homeless is often seen as an identity. This reduces structural inequality to a static, individual, characteristic. As one is accountable for his or her own position, failure is your own responsibility, which makes you part of a vulnerable group. This account of a female respondent shows the impact of this. ‘You know what is said when you get homeless: you will never be
able to get out. I am happy that I was able to show society that you [..] can get out of that if you just stay positive’7
(Client, 38). In this quote it is interesting to see how this woman feels the need to not only
prove to society that she is able to succeed, but also that she has a clause for this success. She frames staying positive as a necessity for getting out of homelessness. It shows an accountability for one’s own success. It also implicates that people who are negative, will not get out of homelessness, because it is something that you need to work for, through a positive attitude. This brings the stigma to a personal level.
Vulnerability
Being homeless also has to do with a stigma on vulnerability: ‘You know that if you are homeless, you
won’t go to a psychologist, because I won’t be crying on the streets, because then you are too vulnerable’8 (Client, 38). The stigma on homelessness does not only have to do with personal characteristics, but also with physical appearance. A university-interviewer explained to me how vulnerability is something that can be present in people’s appearance: ‘With some you have the idea that
they will be fine, they will go on the streets and they sleep outside for a night and then you still are of course very vulnerable, but they have an attitude like I just do that [..] and for other people you think oh, you really need a helping hand to get out of this’9
. Vulnerability seems to be a rating, in which in the vulnerable group of homeless people, some are more vulnerable than others, which for example can be seen in the difference between men and women.
Client: ‘But that is pleasant because then you know a little bit so say indeed what it is like to
indeed truly having to sleep on the streets.’
Peer-interviewer: ‘Yes. But that is a lot harder for a woman than for a man that’s what I also
15 Client: ‘It is scary.’ 10
Client, 38
As explained before, sleeping rough, but also homelessness in general comes with many vulnerabilities, related to (mental) health, violence and (sexual) abuse, addiction, and stigma. As can be seen in the following quote, cultural background, and especially racism, also can have a big impact on the lives of these women.
Client: ‘Our neighbours on the left side were very racist.’ [..]
University-interviewer: ‘Is there a fear? To go live independently?’
Client: ‘Yes, when I live independently, I am of course uh. I have a South Korean descent and
I am afraid that I will again encounter people like that.’
University-interviewer: ‘Yes. And here in the protected housing you do not have that
experience.’11
Client, 39 Fearing racism, and especially fearing new encounters with bad life occurrences from the past (which also applies to for example experiences with violence and sexual abuse), highly impacts the feeling of safety for this woman getting back to independent living. Positive is that in this woman’s protected housing facility she feels safe enough. This also shows how homelessness is stigmatised in a deviant position compared to ‘normal’ society. Moreover, it can show how in such a facility, more women encounter the same (racialized) issues.
Safety
‘In the short period that I lived in a forest, that is then again tricky, weird. It is winter, so it is
pitch dark, and it is freezing. And I just walk out of that building at 7 in the evening. And then I just walk to the station or the Albert Heijn To Go [name of supermarket]. In the dark, totally by myself, homeless, scary. Know nobody, not a human, nobody. But I then again just do that. And then I feel just fine. I am not even scared.’12
Client, 53 Homelessness is something that gets you into vulnerable situations. This woman sketches a situation in which she is aware that she is in a very vulnerable and possibly dangerous situation. It is interesting to see her awareness and her almost being surprised by feeling okay with it. She knows her vulnerability, but the situation has gone to that level she does not even care anymore about her own safety. As Bretherton and Pleace (2018) describe, women often reported to search for safe and quiet places for the night, as ‘keeping out of sight’ was a priority for their safety. Also, women can keep out of sight, by
16 keeping moving, to avoid danger. That makes them less visible than in a fixed spot (Bretherton & Pleace, 2018). Bare sleeping is however a vulnerable position for all, not just for women.
Nevertheless, safety in the homeless shelter is not always guaranteed either. ‘Being a woman in
the night shelter you just don’t want that’13
(Client, 38). ‘If I ever lose my house again, which will not happen, but I will never ever go sleep in the night shelter. No. I think that is so unsafe for a woman’14 (Client, 55). A university-interviewer made an interesting addition, as she said that ‘everyone dreaded
it in the homeless shelter, it did not matter whether you were male or female’15. There were also some women who did not have an unsafe feeling in the shelter, but also described aggression and fighting, mostly between men. ‘With Christmas we decided: the women stay here. I am not going to the men.
Very often there are arguments there.’16 (Client, 56). This duality is also described in this quote: ‘Laughing, while we are actually in a terrible situation. But I also experienced that I, that I
laughed, and the craziest things were happening, experienced fighting, and there were constantly two men security around the building. Uh, really the most horrible things, that I thought this can't be true, what did I end up in?’17
Client, 53 Bretherton and Pleace (2018) argue that the number one reason women do not go to a shelter is because those are open for all genders. For most women, their experiences with domestic violence or abuse made them feel unsafe around men, especially if they had no control over the situation. For this 55-year old woman, sexual abuse in the past made her struggle in certain situations with men. ‘I also agreed to live
there because there were no men, because I just find that very difficult’18. She describes that she
eventually would like to live in a flat, preferably as high as possible, for safety.
Male partner
A reason for homelessness for women is often interrelated with changing situations with a (male) partner. In the 45 interviews with female clients that I analysed, 25 women (55.6%) stated divorce, sudden death of their partner, or other partner related issues as the direct cause of their problems with mental health, homelessness and/or addiction. As a rapport by the Dutch Council for Public Health and Society states, loss of housing after a dramatic event, like a break-up, was described by (former) homeless people as a significant reason for homelessness. For young people it was even the most important reason (RVS, 2020). ‘From my 36th onwards I have been confronted with psychosis and depression, so on. So that already played for years with a period of three years in between when it went very well. Then my husband passed away and then it went very badly again. And that actually stayed that way’19 (Client, 65). Losing (the support of) or divorcing a partner, also often created financial problems. This 25-year old client is living on welfare with her children:
17
‘That is also the reason why I am going into that divorce proceedings. Because I have actually been a single mother from the beginning. But I am cut by the tax authorities on my child-related budget, for example. He gets the health care allowance on his account and he does not want to give it to me, so I will be cut on that too. Fortunately, I got my housing allowance here, so that is. Otherwise I wouldn’t know it either. However, I receive single parent benefits from social assistance, otherwise I wouldn't have made it. So, I just make it. Every now and then I ask my parents to help out, for diapers or something. I have two children in diapers.’20
Client, 25
A partner can also be used as protection, like described in the theoretical framework as vicarious physical capital. That is the insurance of physical protection, that is transferred from a man to a woman in an intimate relationship. An example can be found in the following: ‘Well you know the protection
outside, of course, for all the sharks. I could sleep at his’21 (Client, 38). She describes she moved in with
her partner in a sewer tunnel, which they made home like. She did not want to sleep in the homeless shelter, because she was sexually assaulted there. As she was unable to prove this, she was suspended. After the suspension she did not want to go back.
Role of social network
A male partner or network with males can be a guarantee of safety on the streets. To prevent getting into such a vulnerable position, a social network in general can also be a safety net. As I described in the theoretical framework, women make more use of their social network than men. This regularly came back in interviews of female clients, as they relied on their family, children, friends, acquaintances or partners for temporary stay, support, or other help:
University-interviewer: ‘Yes, the [organisation]. But then also...’
Client: ‘But that… I didn't feel comfortable going there. So, I was like, well, I'll just stay in my
car and then…’
University-interviewer: ‘Yes.’
Client: ‘Yes. I liked that best for myself. And at my friend’s I could occasionally take a shower
and eat and so on.’22
Client, 52 A lack of social network therefore results in extra vulnerability, as this women tells: ‘My parents came
all the way to The Netherlands which meant a situation in which we didn’t have any family, [..] my parents couldn’t take good care of me with domestic violence and so on, so I don’t have them either. I literally came to stand on my own’23 (Client, 39). A different cultural background can be a factor for a
lack of a present social network, which also lacks crucial support when needed.
A social network can also have a negative effect. For addicted drug users their social network can be a massive pitfall, as a 33-year old woman describes. ‘The only contacts they know come from the
18
homeless world. They are unsavoury, figurative figures with criminality; you invite them into your house, because your 50 euros are finished, you can no longer smoke pipe, you don’t have any food left in the house. Someone comes to sleep on your couch, and that's how it starts.’24 (Client, 33). However, women also expressed a discomfort in relying on their social networks, as this 55-year old woman shows:
Client: ‘When you’ve never been homeless, you also don’t know where to go to. And I have
also never thought: o, there is something I can go to or so. I didn’t know all of that. So, I went to friends and family. I have five brothers and a sister, so you are set for six days already, so to speak.’
University-interviewer: ‘Yes, everywhere you stayed only one day, one night?’
Client: ‘Yes, I never wanted to be a burden. So, I usually stayed for one or two days and then I
usually left again.’25 Client, 55 Some women did not want to ask their social network for accommodation. When asked if she would be able to relapse on her sister, this woman answered: ‘No, that is not how it should be. Of course
not. I have to do it myself, right? 26’ (Client, 47). And for this 55-year old woman it also was a no-go: ‘I could not go to my children, I also did not want to, because the three of them all have their own things and then they would have to support me, well, that is not the intention.’27 (Client, 55). This relates back to the stigma on homelessness, where people are held personally accountable for their situation, and do not want to rely on their social network for help.
Homelessness as different social sphere
The impact of the social stigma on homelessness, and therefore on mental health issues, addiction, and so on, results not only in homelessness as a social identity. It can also show how homelessness is a different social group, with its own norms and values, as I described previously by the theory of Watson (2016). That homelessness is seen as a different social sphere, is, quite literally, shown by the following interview:
Client: ‘I always say: I live in two worlds. The one of my family and the one here.’ Peer-interviewer: ‘People who are not homeless and family, they have a picture in mind of
you in a nice house.’
Client: ‘They want that. And I do as well.’
Peer-interviewer: ‘So, they stir that up. But only you know the reality of having to deal with
your debts first. They don't see that.’28
19 Homelessness is shown to be something with context-specific and exclusive knowledge, in this matter regarding the pathway to getting out of homelessness. This is not just explicit knowledge, as social class is not just the sum of living conditions, income, or education level. Your social class is embedded within your body, it is part of your habitus, according to which you move around in the social world.
Peer-interviewer: ‘Do you have good contact with the people here, or a few people that you
can talk to? Here, on the group?’
Client: ‘Yes, a few, not so many. It is rather different people than I have been used to.’ Peer-interviewer: ‘What kind of people have you been used to?’
Client: ‘A bit the same, level sounds so negative, but I have had a nice education myself. That's
just, you run into that you're not here with like-minded people. A few are.’29
Client, 65 Social class is strongly linked to social network. A 52-year old woman got into trouble after a divorce, after which she realized that her marriage also made her lack a personal social network in The Netherlands, where she did not speak the language or had family. She now realises how important it is to build a social network and is discussing how she will be able to achieve that. Wanting ‘normal’ neighbours, a ‘regular’ building, to pick up classes or join an expat club, shows her previous social status as an expat.
‘I am trying to soberly, you know, make friends, where I feel comfortable but, really the last
two years have not been good for that, because I've been so traumatized by the way I look at [unintelligible] where I was living and trying to get housing and what I keep saying to [name]. I need normal neighbours. I need to be in a regular apartment building so that I can go make friends or get back to picking up crochet class or an expat club in [place].’30
Client, 52 Liking like-minded people to be around, is also an indicator of one’s social class position. In this manner, one’s social network can also be something to see as a pull up:
Client: ‘And also, friends, because they are of course also a kind of inspiration for how it is
possible.’
University-interviewer: ‘Yeah?’
Client: ‘Yes, sure, because they all just have a fine life. Everyone has their own issues, but it
is still good if you have friends where you can see: that's the way it could be. They have already graduated their masters at my age, they already have a steady job at my age, they are busy buying houses and things like that. And of course, I'm here. So, I have something to aim for. And I think if all my friends would be in such a situation, I wouldn't really bother that much, I think to break out of here quickly, because then I would be really comfortable here
20
actually. And that is of course not the intention.’31
Client, 31 The role of a social network for women in vulnerable positions is crucial. However, the stigma on (female) homelessness results in homelessness being seen as a deviant position in society, and that its members are personally accountable for this position.
Conclusion
In this research I focussed on the question ‘To what extent do stigmatisation and vulnerability play a role in the narratives of (ex-)homeless women?’, on the basis of a content analysis of 45 interviews with (ex-)homeless women. Stigmatisation plays a big role in the everyday lives of homeless women, as mental health issues and homelessness are characterised as shameful. It is important to see that for women this stigma is always present, and that they are having different coping strategies for this stigma. Homelessness puts women into very vulnerable positions and is extra dangerous for women compared to men. Women do seek support from their social network more, and often face difficulties ensuring their safety on the streets, but also especially in homeless shelters. So, stigmatisation and vulnerability play a major part in the narratives of these 45 women with a history in homelessness.
I have worked with this question from an intersectional approach, which made clear that gender, race, and social class are intertwined in the narratives of homeless women. They are all factors that can create ‘extra vulnerabilities’, like racism, but also a lack of social network or a social network with negative side effects can occur. However, they also have aspects which provided options for coping. Use of a (vulnerable) appearance for women can provide extra help or create priority in homeless services. A social network can also provide much needed support. Important to mention is that the stigma on homelessness results in homelessness becoming a different social sphere, with a deviant position in society. This is based on personal accountability of failure from people. For societal concerns, keeping the stigma and personal accountability into account, could provide a better understanding of (female) homelessness. Stigmatization, and especially self-stigmatization, shows how popular understandings of homelessness as a lower position and it being caused by your personal lack and faults, has a counterproductive effect. It increases the stigma on homeless women, as female homelessness lacks presence in not only the statistics, but also on the streets. For further research on female homelessness, considering the role of vulnerability and stigmatisation is needed to understand homeless female narratives. Moreover, an intersectional approach can provide more understanding, as someone is never solely a woman, or just part of a cultural group or the social sphere of homelessness.
Reflections
In this research I provided an account of female homelessness in The Netherlands, in a relatively small sample of 45 accounts of women. I guarantee internal validity of this research by being reflexive of my
21 research project and by incorporating several tools to check my results. My extensive use of expert interviews, and my time of working with the research team, provided me with thorough inside information. With the use of international peer-reviewed literature, I was able to shape my research on vulnerability and stigmatisation build on experiences of women in homelessness all over the world. My results are, in my opinion, not directly generalisable, as they remain the accounts of these 45 Dutch women. However, my combination of the intersections of gender, race, and social class for women when it comes to vulnerability and stigmatisation in their experiences in homelessness, is a preferable way for conducting research on female homelessness.
My focus on women in this study also creates a shortcoming. In my expert interviews with interviewers, I therefore asked for differences between men and women, and also actively asked for experiences in interviewing men. However, I solely give an account of female narratives, while there could (or could not) be a big difference with narratives of men. I have done so, because of the lack of research regarding the narratives of women in combination with stigmatisation and vulnerability from an intersectional approach.
Another shortcoming of this research is that the data that formed the basis of this study consisted of interviews that were not conducted by me. I do have interviewed nine clients (male and female) in the second interview year of the overarching project, which also creates more understanding of these 45 interviews. However, as interviewers have a lot of control over an interview, it is important to consider their role, especially when I was not present at the time. The questions interviewers ask, but also their silences and responses have impact on how the interview goes (Rapley, 2001). As interviewers are never only facilitative and neutral, the questions they pose, and the silences they leave, and also their appearance, in for example facial expressions, will impact the interviewees responses.
An extra consideration regarding this study is that the interviews in this study were conducted by a duo of a university-interviewer and a peer-interviewer. I think that this impacts the narratives of the women in these interviews. The interviews showed that the presence of a peer-interviewers can make a woman feel heard, understood, and comfortable in the interview process. As Watson (2016) argues, the relation and interaction between the interviewee and the interviewers is central in understanding how stories are constructed. In further studies it would be important to consider this role, and see whether peer-interviewers impact the narratives of, so-called, vulnerable homeless women, and what the effect of gender, race, and social class would be. The position of researchers in the field should be considered in any study. Thinking about the role of the interviewers in research is essential in understanding how narratives are constructed in interviews with female (ex-)homeless women.
22
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Quotes in Dutch
1 C: Ja uh als je in een instelling woont dan heb je natuurlijk wel te maken met hospitalisatie en zo. Toch?
I: Mm
C: Volgens mij. Ja en je krijgt altijd een duidelijk stigma en zo.
2 Je bent er gevoelig voor. Dus er zijn altijd wel dingen wat je triggert. Kijk met [instelling], om dat te erkennen dat je hulp nodig hebt van [instelling], dan ben je gestoort. Zo redeneer ik dan. Want als je [instelling], dan ben je gestoord.
3 Ja, vind ik wel. Ik vind sommige dingen niet toegankelijk voor de mensen. Want bij de mensen… dan spreek ik puur uit mezelf. Dan komt er toch een bepaald stukje schaamte en dan is dat net die drempel die je over moet. En waar moet ik dan naar toe? ~ dan zouden ze gewoon structureel of een tv-spotje over moeten maken he van dit kan er gebeuren of een programma aan wijden. Of kom met bij de gemeente met folders daarover.
4 Dat is het zeg maar de psychiatrie en psychologen van de daklozen. Ik zeg ik weet niet of jullie het weten, maar ik wou niet dakloos zijn hoor. Ja maar wij zijn hier voor de daklozen. Ik zeg ja maar ik wou niet dakloos zijn. Kom, kom. Ik zeg, ik neem wel de reguliere. Ik zeg dat doe ik wel via mijn huisarts of mijn verzekering Eigenlijk zei ik met andere woorden: opzouten. Ik wou reguliere. Ik wil niet bestempeld worden. En weet je waar zij zijn gevestigd? Bij [instantie]. Nou ik ben al dakloos, dan moet ik zeker daarnaartoe. En denken ze god ja maar natuurlijk ze is verslaafd. Ik vind het niet erg als iemand verslaafd is, daar kan die persoon helemaal niks aan doen. Klaar. Dat bedoel ik niet. Maar je hoeft niet twee stempels te hebben.
5 I: Maar dan ben je buiten wat aan het drinken en dan zeg je: ik moet zo weg, want het is al bijna half elf.
C: Ja, dat is een beetje ongemakkelijk. Op de eerste date verzin ik daar wel een smoesje voor, want ik vind niet dat ik op een eerste date mijn hele. Want als ik een keer vertel dat ik hier woon, dan gaan ze ook vragen waarom en zus en zo en dan moet je meteen tijdens je eerste wijntje een heel levensverhaal helemaal dramatisch lopen doen en dat vind ik niet zo sfeervol. Maar goed, het maakt ook allemaal niet uit.
6 Ja, dakloos klinkt al heel negatief. Dus soms als die mensen vragen waar woon je zeg ik daar verder maar ik zeg nooit ik ben dakloos. Dat hoor je nog steeds het is, het is geen taboe maar het is gewoon iets dat je van jezelf dan...
7 Nee, nee ik kan niet wachten totdat het zo ver is en ik ben ook heel blij dat ik de maatschappij heb kunnen laten zien. Weet je wat er wordt gezegd als je dakloos bent kom je er nooit meer uit. Ik ben blij
25 dat ik de maatschappij heb kunnen laten zien dat je 's avonds als dakloze vrouw daaruit kan komen maar je maar gewoon positief blijft.
8 Ja weet je als je dakloos bent je gaat niet, gaat niet naar een psycholoog wat ga ik niet op straat lopen janken want dan ben te kwetsbaar.
9 Dus soms is de beeldvorming hoe iemand dan hoe iemand dan is of iemand dan in een gesprek is kan kan maken dat je denkt dat die net iets kwetsbaarder is maar uiteindelijk is dat ook alleen maar hoe mensen zich opstellen en hoe dat overkomt in de houding die ze hebben zeg maar ehm ja maar bij sommige sommige mensen heb je dat gevoel gewoon iets meer zo van bij sommigen heb je het idee van oké die redden zich wel weet je wel die die gaan de straat op en die die slapen een nachtje buiten en dan ben je je bent nog steeds heel kwetsbaar natuurlijk maar die hebben ook zo'n houding van joh dat dat doe ik gewoon en ja die nemen dat dan aan en andere mensen dan denk je oh je hebt echt een helpende hand nodig om hier effe uit te komen en net effe een zetje extra om om de goede keuzes te maken of zo
10 C: Maar dat is prettig want dan weet jij een beetje zeg maar inderdaad hoe het is inderdaad werkelijk op straat moet slapen.
I: Ja. Maar dat het veel moeilijker is voor een vrouw dan voor een man dat weet ik ook. C: Het is eng.
11 C: Ja. Gebroken tand daardoor gekregen. En uh maar de buren aan onze linker kant die waren dus heel racistisch. Mm. En uhm die waren dus niet goed.
I: Is dat een angst? Om dan weer zelfstandig te wonen?
C: Ja als ik zelfstandig ga wonen, ik ben natuurlijk uh. Ik heb een Zuid Koreaanse afkomst. Mm. En ik ben gewoon bang dat ik uh weer dat soort mensen tegen ga komen.
I: Ja. En hier in de, in de beschermd wonen heb je die ervaring niet.
C: Nou uh, nee. Ja. Ja hier uh hier heb je toch te maken met lotgenoten en zo.
12 In de hele korte periode dat ik in een bos heb gewoond, dat is dan wel weer tricky, raar. Het is winter dus het is stikkedonker, het is ijskoud. En ik loop gewoon om zeven uur 's avonds dat pand nog uit. En loop dan gewoon mooi naar het station of Albert Heijn to go. In het donker, helemaal alleen, dakloos, eng. Kennen geen hond,, geen mens niemand niet. Maar dat doe ik dus dan weer wel. En dan voel ik me daar gewoon prima. Ik ben er niet eens bang.
13 Weet je als vrouw zijnde in de nachtopvang wil je gewoon wil je niet
14 Mocht ik ook mijn huis kwijtraken weer, dat gaat niet meer gebeuren, maar ik ga nooit meer in nachtopvang slapen. Nee. Ik vind dat zo onveilig voor een vrouw.
15 Respondent: dus dat was denk ik het grote verschil als ik moet denken van ja en voor de rest ja iedereen vond het afschuwelijk in de daklozenopvang het maakt niet uit of je een man of vrouw bent 16 I: Hoe gaat de relatie tussen de vrouwenafdeling en de mannenafdeling.
C: Ik moet er niks van hebben. I: maar anderen wel?
C: Nee ook niet. Want met kerst hebben we besloten vrouwen blijven hier. Ik ga niet naar de mannen. Heel vaak is daar ruzie. Dat is echt zo.
17 Lachen zelf lachen terwijl we eigenlijk in een verschrikkelijke situatie zit. Maar, ook dat heb ik daar wel meegemaakt dat ik, dat euh dat ik heb gelachen euh de gekste dingen werden vechtpartijen meegemaakt en er liepen constant twee man beveiliging rond in het pand. Euh, echt de vreselijkste dingen, dat ik dacht dit kan niet waar zijn, waar ben ik in beland?
