Beggars Can’t be Choosers: Exclusion of People with Lived Experience from the Homelessness Policy Process

Abstract

This senior thesis explores the exclusion of homeless people from the creation of homelessness policy and service provision, focusing on the Western Massachusetts Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Berkshire counties. On a broader scale, this project is concerned with the gap between the aims of social service policymakers and the conceptualization of policy and services by recipients. The questions that sparked this research are as follows: 1) How can the lived experience of homelessness inform a critique of existing policies to address homelessness crafted by policymakers? 2) What knowledge can experts draw from the ethnographic accounts of homeless individuals detailing their lived experience with homelessness and housing policy? 3) How could homelessness policies change if those covered by them had a voice in shaping them? Utilizing semi-structured ethnographic interviews with homeless individuals and policy actors, as well as analysis of policy documents and meeting notes from local Continuums of Care and homelessness advocacy networks, this thesis explores why homeless individuals are not seen as legitimate actors in the social welfare policy process, and why current policy responses to homelessness are failing. Findings suggest that current homelessness policy does not take into account the structural factors that construct the experience of homelessness. Policymakers and individuals experiencing homelessness appear to conceptualize policy at different levels of governance, where homeless individuals reflect upon programmatic or local policy responses where policy actors look to state and federal response.