A Complex Exile: Homelessness and Social Exclusion in Canada - Hardcover

Dej, Erin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774865113 ISBN 13: 9780774865111

Publisher: University of British Columbia Press, 2020

Synopsis

Over 235,000 people couch surf, stay in emergency shelters, and live on the street in Canada every year, but lack of secure housing is but one barrier faced by people who are homeless. A Complex Exile demonstrates how the very policies, practices, and funding models that exist to house the homeless, promote social inclusion, and provide mental health care form a homelessness industrial complex. These practices emphasize personal responsibility and individualized responses that ultimately serve to subtly exclude people on the street, which has profoundly negative effects on people experiencing homelessness. Erin Dej explores how a shift from managing to preventing and ending homelessness has taken shape over the past two decades. However, this movement has resulted in an increased focus on individualized responses to homelessness; individuals are charged with “fixing” themselves in order to secure housing and re-enter mainstream society. This book demonstrates that the causes of, and responses to, homelessness have become largely medicalized, limiting discussion on structural and systemic drivers such as income inequality, discrimination, and rising housing costs. A Complex Exile goes beyond bio-medical and psychological perspectives on homelessness, mental illness, and addiction to call for a socially transformed response to homelessness in Canada.

About this title

About the Author

Erin Dej is assistant professor of criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. She is co-author of A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention and co-editor of Containing Madness: Gender and ‘Psy’ in Institutional Contexts.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774865113
• ISBN 13: 9780774865111
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232