Martin, A. (2023, June). Clashing Vulnerabilities for the right to adequate housing. Marginalized groups vs. middle-income groups in a precarious housing situation. In Clashing Vulnerabilities, Uppsala, Sweden.

Clashing vulnerabilities   The globalization era resulted in the fragmentation of class structures, and regional and social inequalities grew. As a result, upward mobility is declining in most countries in Europe. More and more people are at risk of downward mobility, but they are classified as “not poor enough” to receive help and are pushed back of the queue for benefits, including housing.   Housing affordability is a primary driver of precarity, affecting both upward and downward mobility. A growing number of middle-income people have difficulty affording adequate housing in Europe, facing safety concerns, as they can only access unhealthy, low-quality, energy-inefficient, or overcrowded housing options. Their situation has become fragile partly because of the liberalized labor market, and partly because the system abandoned them as an outcome of the cuts in the welfare state. Meanwhile, the number of evicted and homeless people is also rising.   ”Clashing vulnerabilities” between marginalized people and increasingly downwardly mobile people should be managed, even though risks are being distributed differently, and it is hard to estimate how structural and individual factors influence the probability of becoming downwardly mobile.   I had my first secondment at BMSZKI (Budapest Methodological Centre of Social Policy and its Institutions). BMSZKI is the largest homeless service provider in the capital, also it is one of the largest social service providers in the country and the Central European region. They are making a great effort to ensure the highest quality of services for vulnerable people who turn to them for help, also they developed the methodology of needs assessment for homeless people and established a special professional network to solve issues (e.g: related to housing, health care, addiction). BMSZKI differentiates the profiles of their services based on the needs of homeless people and these services are adapted to the demands that arose.   This secondment demonstrated how “social practices” as a framework can serve transdisciplinarity. There is a certain knowledge that we cannot get from books or lectures. Personal experiences of the working people at particular institutes, or organizations are essential parts of the learning process. During my stay, I learned about the theory and practice of social work, and I had the possibility to have site visits, meeting with the leaders of different programs (FET, No Slum), and homes (Temporary home for families, K22). I had the chance to have individual and multi-person consultations to shape my understanding and the direction of my research.   I benefited from the fruitful discussions about how important it is to open services both for homeless and at risk people. To open the system from the bottom and the top. On the one hand, social/housing policy should lower the number of people who are homeless (living literally on the streets), and on the other hand, it should provide people in general with more opportunities to get a safe, affordable home. A policy that focuses only on the most serious problems or restricts itself to the poorest residents is clearly not sustainable. The question remains: How to find harmony between these two interrelated goals? They are non-contradictory public purposes, but they compete with each other in terms of resources and administrative capacities. There lies the challenge.   I would like to conclude this post with a book recommendation and a quote.   Book recommendation: Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women by Elliot Liebow The author of this ethnographic research spent time with homeless women in the late eighties (after being diagnosed with cancer). Liebow tells us that these women were not homeless because they had mental health issues or addiction problems. (There are many women who are mentally or physically ill or who are having family issues or addiction problems who have homes.) They are homeless because they cannot afford a home, even when they have several jobs at the same time.   Quote about homelessness from Sharon Stone (from her speech presented at the Compass Community Services, Spring Forward 2009 luncheon, San Francisco, April 23, 2009), who is the co-founder of Planet Hope ( https://planethope.org ):   “I think so many people don’t really know what it is to be homeless, or how people get there. Many people hear the word “homeless” and they think of that guy cast in a movie who is kind of skinny and skanky and stinky and stands outside a bar begging. That’s not homelessness. That’s an idea. Homelessness is what happens when you’re one paycheck away from losing your home. When you have tried everything you’ve got. Everything. When you’ve leveraged everything, sold everything, sold your lawn furniture, sold your couch, taken your grandmother’s engagement ring to the pawn shop, given away your clothes, haven’t eaten, live on a dozen eggs for a week, fed your kids but you don’t eat, slept in your car, they’ve taken your car, you’ve lived in a pup tent, and now you don’t have that. Homelessness is when your government job is gone. Homelessness is when you’re a professor, and they don’t need you anymore at the school. Homelessness is when your dental group is cutting down and they don’t need that many dentists anymore. Homelessness is educated people. Homelessness is when you’re a wife, and your husband wants a younger one. Or a different one. And not you and those noisy kids… And when children — good children, not drug users — but good normal children just like yours are in the street, innocent, pure, lovely, beautiful children just like mine and yours are in the street for two weeks, 14 days, and they have nowhere to live, and not a mother who is a tiger, who stands over them and gets them to school and keeps her head together, or something happens to that parent — in 14 days they are prostitutes to live, because that’s the only way they can eat. And that is a governmental statistic. This is homelessness.”

The New Housing Precariat in Europe   Insights from My Secondment at MRI During my one-month secondment at the Metropolitan Research Institute (MRI) in Budapest, Hungary, I gained invaluable knowledge about the housing needs and challenges in Hungary, which has significantly contributed to my doctoral studies. Although my stay was brief, it was theoretically and methodologically crucial for advancing my research on the theory of the precariat and housing regimes.   About the Metropolitan Research Institute Founded in 1989, the Metropolitan Research Institute (MRI) is an internationally and nationally recognized scientific think-tank dedicated to housing, social problems, and urban development. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with MRI, which has enriched my academic journey and provided me with critical insights into housing issues.   Focus of My Research During my time at MRI, I primarily worked on the literature review for my doctoral thesis, focusing on the theory of the precariat and housing regimes. The fruitful discussions and collaborative environment at MRI were instrumental in helping me draft my conference paper on "Clashing Vulnerabilities for the Right to Affordable Housing," which is now evolving into a book chapter. This chapter explores the new meanings of risk society, provides an overview of how the housing precariat has changed over the last decades in Europe, and offers a new typology of the housing precariat with an emphasis on clashing vulnerabilities.   Addressing the Limitations of the Regime Approach Another significant outcome of my secondment was addressing the limitations of the regime approach to housing studies. These limitations include: - Oversimplification - Static categorization - Focus on formal systems - Lack of recognition that housing policy is interconnected with other policy areas (welfare, urban planning, employment) - Neglect of cross-cutting issues (gender, race, class) - Overlooking individual agency, local governance, and community initiatives While the regime approach is a useful framework, it should be complemented with other perspectives. It is also necessary to investigate individual-level factors through life course cases, as there tends to be inadequate attention to micro-level dynamics. When exploring how housing policy impacts the middle class, both macro and micro-level analyses are essential. Conclusion My secondment at MRI was a transformative experience that provided me with deeper insights into the housing precariat in Europe. The support and guidance I received were instrumental in advancing my research and understanding of housing issues. As I continue to develop my work, I aim to contribute to the broader discourse on housing precarity and advocate for more comprehensive and inclusive housing policies that address the needs of all vulnerable groups.