Living on the margins: single Homelessness and nightshelter use in a British city

The population of individuals who are the subjects of this study are clearly defined by their use of an emergency accommodation facility for single homeless people. Even in such a sample there were wide variations in terms of several variables. The literature on single homelessness has tended to consist either of journalistic experiential accounts, or demographic surveys in which the single homeless are described statistically. Some previous researchers have looked at single homelessness from an interactionist perspective and produced social anthropological or ethnographic accounts focussing exclusively on the world of "homeless alcoholics" or "chronic inebriates " , who in fact comprise only a small proportion of those who use nightshelters. The way in which the homeless are represented in the media is examined as a significant factor influencing perceptions of and reactions to them. Three principal modes of representation are defined. Methodological approaches are identified which are appropriate to the research objectives of combining statistical description with an appreciation of the heterogeneity of the homeless, the perspectives of staff and management of an agency working with homeless people, the careers o f the homeless and the "culture of homelessness". The origins of the Plymouth nightshelter are described and the results of the recording work are presented and developed. Various career possibilities and eventualities are considered. The processes, perspectives and understandings of both the management hierarchy and the staff are outlined , and a culture of homelessness is documented. Although the users of the nightshelter are a heterogeneous group, elements of a shared culture of necessity and subsistence are discernible. Notwithstanding status differentiations evident among the long-term single homeless, a common argot and mutually understood perspectives were also apparent. The actual as well as the purported role of the nightshelter is rehearsed, and the structural positions and predicaments of homeless people and their diminished life-chances are assessed