My Own Space

"...not only vindicating their right to occupy these spaces, in the face of attempts to privately take over public spaces, but also in some way...vindicating their presence as 'normal' in a space that is essentially versatile and ambiguous and should continue to be so, a space with a calling to remain chaotic, permanently erupting in some way, wild, where all conflicts have their place and where all the triumphs and failures of our times can be found, facilitating the most incredible and unexpected encounters."

Those were the words of Cabrera (2006:3) who, when regulation of public space was introduced in the global north cities demonstrated by spatial exclusion of the homeless, spoke out against the abnormality of such actions and asserted the normality of the presence of homelessness in the urban space.

Recognizing the restrictive use of public space is becoming the popular course,  Tosi (2007) explored the impacts of such changes on the persons who require the utilization of public space by virtue of their absence of fixed homes. Unfortunately the mere presence and activities of homeless persons in urban space are seen as a disturbance of the 'normal' activities  for which public spaces are intended, even as a danger. Additionally the regulation of public space further restricts the life spaces of homeless people in that it deprives marginal groups which spend most of their day in public space of 'a location for basic human functioning': of 'places where theycan claim some degree of personal comfort...' (Doherty et al, 2006) and paradoxically 'places where one may feel safe and somehow protected' (Giannoni, 2007).

Someome's own comfort, someone's own home...

(Such policies are very present and active in European countries and U.S.A.)

As a result, homeless persons are being squeezed out of their HOMES (yes! I did say homes!!!) removing culture, removing ethics and thus rendering homeless persons virtually invisible. So I go back to the quote above and ask why. Why, in a place that begs to be choatic, the chaotic and colour should be removed?

Hence my picture for this post, clearly a homeless man, on Fredrick Street in Port of Spain, claiming his own space, his own comfort, his own home...

For further reading on the Tosi's article "Homelessness and the Control of Public Space-Criminalising the Poor?" see the following link:

http://eohw.horus.be/files/freshstart/European%20Journal%20of%20Homelessness/Volume%20One/EJH_Vol1_Thinkpiece3.pdf