"Looking a gift horse in the mouth": Residential Immobility and the Silent Discipline of Public Housing as Charity in British Columbia
Date
2014-01-03
Authors
Davies, Matthew Eric
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In the Spring of 2011, I conducted 12 interviews with public housing tenants in Victoria, British Columbia. This research became the focus of my MA thesis research in anthropology. Both BC Housing's directly managed buildings and non-profit housing were included. My thesis aims to understand the motivations of tenants who desire to leave public housing and to situate these motivations within the framework of "push" and "pull" factors. In other words, to understand whether the desire to leave public housing stemmed from within in the housing system (push) or outside of it (pull). All participants reported push factors, though a few had been pushed from unsatisfactory public housing into satisfactory public housing. However, most participants felt stuck as they did not have the resources to pay for unaffordable market housing. The dissatisfaction they faced in public housing stemmed from problems with management/staff, problems with neighbours, and problems with the physical condition of housing. Many participants expressed fear that they would lose their housing if they expressed their rights as tenants or made complaints about the issues they faced. Complaints that were brought forward were seen as being ignored. In order to understand the frustration and fear participants experienced, I explore the idea of social assistance as "charity", which has its beginnings in the English Poor Laws, and what effect this has on the recipients. Social assistance as charity, including public housing, is given as a sort of "gift". I argue that in this framework, a gift should be accepted willingly and not questioned. This acts to silence complaints and plays off of common notions about who are the deserving poor and undeserving poor.
Description
Keywords
public housing, social housing, residential mobility, poverty, charity, discipline, immobility, deserving, undeserving, subsidized housing