Gentrification And Homelessness Essay

It is unlikely that someone would say it is good that people do not have access to affordable housing, yet in recent years across the United States the problem of homelessness has increased, and it is being criminalized in an effort to “clean up” cities. The line between public and commercial space is being blurred as cities are being redeveloped and developers attempt to change the social topography of a city, by ignoring the problem of homelessness and trying to send it away. By studying how the homeless of Miami perceive the city’s recent and ongoing changes, we hope to add to the literature a missing piece of understanding on how people perceive their own situation and add qualitative data from this a different part of the united states. …show more content…
Atkinson looked to see whether population changes were voluntary migrations and, whether, what he called “G” areas were truly gentrified or if they had simply experienced natural social changes (Atkinson, 2000). Atkinson’s (2000) research revealed the inverse relationship between gentrification and homeless populations in London. There were more homeless people in outer London than in the inner city, due to inner London’s greater extent of gentrification, which in turn pushed many people to outer London (Atkinson, 2000). It was found that in the areas of London that were gentrified, mostly professionals moved in, while those of lower income were displaced (Atkinson, 2000). This type of research adds an empirical strength to understanding causality between gentrification and a city’s homeless population. However, perception cannot be seen in data, but can only come from interviews and understanding personal