People struggling with homelessness often have limited control over their belongings and face the constant risk of being separated from their possessions.
Most of us take our belongings for granted. It’s only when we mislay or lose them that we reflect on their value. Our stuff is not only useful, it also holds our memories and identities. It connects us to others.
Those of us who have not experienced homelessness might not recognize this reality. One of us began research on this topic on this assumption. Naively, he asked groups of homeless people to provide stories describing their experience with belongings. Most of us don’t experience the hum of loss because of the property rules that protect our belongings in the spaces we live. But homeless people don’t have these protections. Instead, their possessions are controlled by others, like landlords, bylaw officers and shelter or storage operators.
People who are already vulnerable can become even more so as a result. As an Abbotsford respondent noted, after you lose all your possessions “you are back at the bottom of the barrel. You have to start over again.”
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