Dakloos door de jaren heen. Het Amsterdamse zwerfcircuit

Samenvatting

Recent attempts to understand the emergence of homeless people in the Netherlands have almost exclusively relied on social-psychological explanations of homelessness, resulting in an incomplete & even distorted perception of these people & their behavior. It is argued that the failure to view homeless people in the broader socioeconomic & situational contexts of their daily lives inhibits understanding; a longitudinal perspective on homelessness as an on-&-off process of adaptation to daily life is proposed. Using data from an ongoing ethnographic study of the adaptation of about 260 homeless people (of whom about 27 have been interviewed regularly since 1993) in Amsterdam, factors influencing people's chances to leave the homeless circuit are discussed. It is found that the "career" homeless, who know their way around support systems, & "autonomous" homeless, who choose not to use provisions, are most successful, whereas homeless illegals, drug addicts, & newcomers (or people who are not aware of support options) often fail to recover from homelessness. Possible implications of these findings for policymakers are discussed. 38 References. Adapted from the source document.