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- Title
Left out? Housing insecurity for one‐person, low‐income, non‐senior households in Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
- Authors
Leviten‐Reid, Catherine; Parker, Brenda
- Abstract
Key Messages: Low‐income, one‐person, non‐senior households experience significant housing insecurity and homelessness in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.This population has limited income and job opportunities and faces lower levels of assistance and fewer rental housing options.This is a result of changing economic and social geographies, a gendered and colonial welfare state that has focused on "deserving" families, a neoliberal political economy, and neoliberal discourses. We describe a growing crisis in housing affordability and homelessness for one‐person, low‐income, non‐senior households who rent in Canada. Important and not incidental, this crisis results from gendered, colonial, and neoliberal policies and practices sedimented over time. One‐person households which are low‐income and non‐senior (LINS) have fallen through a crack created by a gendered and colonial welfare state that has primarily focused on "deserving" families; a neoliberal political economy has widened this chasm by making housing less affordable and workers more vulnerable, while diminishing social supports. We illustrate our argument through a case study of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, a region in Nova Scotia with a struggling economy. Using data from sources including housing providers, tenants, and the local homelessness count, we demonstrate the significant unemployment and low median incomes for one‐person LINS households, and describe how this household type, more than any other, experiences core housing need and homelessness. In turn, we show that these individuals may be considered undeserving in that they receive less generous shelter allowances, and have fewer rental housing options available with respect to quantity (including no public housing) and quality. We point to some differential vulnerabilities within this population and suggest opportunities for intervention.
- Subjects
HOUSING; HOMELESSNESS; POOR people; RENTAL housing; NEOLIBERALISM
- Publication
Canadian Geographer, 2018, Vol 62, Issue 4, p470
- ISSN
0008-3658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/cag.12459