ABSTRACT
A house is more than a place in which we sleep, eat, and store our possessions; housing creates a place that individuals make into a ‘home’. The taken-for-grantedness of access to a home is seen in the fact that we do not refer to people with housing as ‘homed’, whereas individuals who do not have access to housing are frequently referred to as ‘homeless’ rather than ‘unhoused’. Homelessness prevents individuals from investing places with the affective attachments associated with houses, but since the need for shelter and storage is an ongoing one, unhoused individuals must find places other than houses. In considering the relationship to place of individuals experiencing homelessness in Melbourne, Australia, we consider ways in which people experiencing homelessness utilise or adapt urban places for the activities associated with life in the place we call home.
