6.1 Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
Nora Karena
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
- Describe how houselessness is a social problem.
- Describe how social stratification can help sociologists to explain the causes and consequences of housing instability.
- Analyze how social location impacts houselessness.
- Discuss how the sociological explanations of housing insecurity changed over time.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of interdependent solutions to housing as a way of expanding social justice.
Chapter Overview
With deep gratitude for the Spring 2022 Sociology 206 students at Tillamook Bay Community College for your feedback on the draft of this chapter and holding space for its development. And to Kandi, for never giving up.
– Nora Karena
Kandi (her street name) was 12 the first time she ran away from home. She had read about running away in books like My Side of the Mountain. These stories were supposed to be cautionary tales, but they showed Kandi a path out of an abusive home. She just wanted out. Rather than stay in one place for very long, she hitchhiked cross-country. She spent a lot of time in truck stops and bars. She used a lot of drugs. Every once in a while she got arrested, and there were close calls with dangerous people. She experienced sexual harassment daily and was sexually assaulted and exploited many times.
As she got older and tougher, she learned how to make people respect her no and pay for her yes, at least most of the time. She got her first bartending job at the age of 15. It was easy to find work, but she never stayed anywhere for long. She told people that she chose “the road.” Given the options, it seemed like a rational choice.
People she met shared spare pieces of their lives. She encountered art, music, and big ideas. She went to a lot of parties and listened to many stories around many fires. Sometimes, she had fun—once she got picked up because a group of whitewater rafters needed one more person to paddle. She learned how to survive, but dreamed of more, and spent long hours constructing a better life in her imagination. Eventually, in fits and starts, she began to move towards a life that was safer and softer.
It took years to get stable, but eventually, in her 20s she landed in a small coastal town and fell in love. She stayed put long enough to find a chosen family and make a home. Home was hard for Kandi to hold on to, and she continued to experience housing insecurity into her 40s until she went back to school for a better-paying career. Kandi is in her 50s now, stable, and happy with her family and work. She knows how lucky she is.
Kandi is one of an estimated 26 million people in the United States who have been unhoused during their lifetimes (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine et al. 2018). While Kandi now maintains stable housing, an estimated 11.4 million people in the United States reported housing insecurity in the summer of 2021. Peopl