Spatial Governance of the Unhoused: On Social Death in the Contemporary City

Abstract

In this article, we examine tactics in municipal policy and the criminal law regarding socio-spatial governance of unhoused individuals in city spaces. We explore the intentions and effects of tactics such as sweeps, which remove or destroy unhoused people's possessions, move on orders targeting the mobility and immobility of unhoused people and spatial banning which prohibits the presence of unhoused people in particular locations. We argue here that such tactics respond to houselessness by associating the presence of unhoused individuals with that of waste. Examination of legal and municipal tactics managing the presence of unhoused people in public space shows they are being discursively aligned with waste matter, and their presence in city spaces strictly regulated. Such spatial exclusion strategies result in a kind of social death. The article argues tactics of spatial exclusion should be abandoned by recognising the right of unhoused individuals to be in public places.