Homelessness and the Character of Cities: World Habitat Day 2015

Last week IGH was delighted to serve on the planning committee for celebration of World Habitat Day at United Nations headquarters in New York City, along with UN-Habitat, the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, the American Institute of Architects - New York, UN Women, the United Cities and Local Governments and the Permanent Mission of Grenada to the United Nations. The day’s theme was public spaces. In his opening remarks, UN-Habitat director Joan Clos said something that resonated with me throughout the day.

He said, “The character of a city is defined by its streets and public spaces.”

IGH is not a public space institute, nor do we work directly on architecture or design, but a statement like Clos’ reminds me that in cities around the world, streets and public spaces are used as housing by very vulnerable people. I’m not sure I like what that says about our collective character.

As with the use of public space, the way cities engage with vulnerable people does not reflect only one facet of the city’s identity, isolated within one department or task force. It reflects the character of an entire place. When we see people sleeping in public spaces and on the streets, what we are seeing is an exposed character flaw—not of those experiencing homelessness, but in the city itself. And though it can be tempting to seek out ways to hide our cities’ flaws, I want to live in a city I can be proud of, where homelessness isn’t just hidden. Like the researchers, front-line practitioners, policymakers and thought leaders we work with at IGH, I want to live in a city where homelessness doesn’t exist.

Among the topics handled in speeches and panel discussion throughout the day were the impact of public space on climate change; inclusion of women in planning; and how design and uses of public space intersect. But there was little discussion of the area where public space and exclusion most directly collide: the lives of people experiencing street homelessness.

There were some exceptions, for example during the day’s final panel, which IGH moderated and which included IGH research steering committee member and University of Pennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane. Asked what is missing from discussion of public space, Culhane said:

“People who are living outside, who are occupying a lot of these spaces, are doing so because they don't have a choice. They were not planned for. We have to be thinking, 'what are the social welfare dimensions of public space?' How is it that we can use the desire and need to have safe and enjoyable spaces to foster more concern about why we don't create shelter and access to housing for people who might not have it?"

The event’s keynote speaker, architect Daniel Libeskind, spoke on a related topic.

"Public space is a forum for dialogue -- it is for others, for those we don't know. It is for the strangers, for the immigrants, for those who don't speak our language; for the oppressed, for the neglected. Public space is an open field allowing people to see each other, to speak to each other, to look at each other.”

But in our streets and public spaces, we don’t see people who experience street homelessness. A gimmick floats across my Facebook feed every now and then where a well-known person – either a celebrity or a family member of unsuspecting pedestrians – asks passersby for spare change. Set up on candid camera, someone, or several people, who know the person pass by without looking down, sometimes stepping over or around their loved one. Usually a tearful interview with the person who ignored his or her family member follows. The message: we literally do not see people experiencing homelessness.

Ignoring our cities’ character flaws won’t fix them. And listening to the discussion last week about public space, it felt clear that homelessness isn’t invisible only on our streets; it’s also invisible on the global stage. We have so much to gain by looking harder.

#UNHabitat #WorldHabitatDay