"The comfort to be me": home and housing struggles in St. John's

• Main Author: Wilson, Nicole
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2014
• Subjects: Newfoundland; Canada
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/6476/; https://research.library.mun.ca/6476/1/THE_COMFORT_TO_BE_Me_Nicole_Wilson.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/6476/3/THE_COMFORT_TO_BE_Me_Nicole_Wilson.pdf

This thesis was completed as part of a Master’s program in Anthropology and examines individuals’ experiences with housing struggles, home, and homelessness in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Three main topics are explored within this thesis: the participants’ experiences with finding and keeping housing; what home and homeless meant to the participants; and lastly, how the term homeless as a term does not adequately describe real life experiences. I propose that we replace the terms homeless and homelessness with a spectrum and instead use the phrases sleeping rough, temporary institutional housing, precarious housing, and bereft-of-home to discuss the range of housing issues and the emotional turmoil that comes with such struggles.