Once you start to recognize the anti-homeless architecture within your own city, you won’t be able to unsee the atrocities. When considering public architecture, why intentionally choose inhumane, discriminatory, and more expensive architectural options when far more affordable and inclusive alternatives exist, are available, and already exist in our community? The purpose of this letter is to inspire others to fight against hostile architecture.
Bob Erlenbusch, with the National Coalition for the Homeless, describes how anti-homeless architecture originated in the 1960s and aimed to promote safer neighborhoods (Erlenbusch, 2023). Due to stereotypes, unhoused individuals were and are unfairly labeled criminals, and public architecture was built to prevent and punish them for these “crimes,” including actions like living/sleeping outside. Spikes were built into pavements to hurt individuals if they attempted to rest on the ground, fences were built in certain areas to restrict individuals from roaming certain areas, and benches were curved at pronounced angles to prevent unhoused individuals from sleeping. These structures surround us today.
It should be noted that these intentionally cruel structures do not just inflict harm on unhoused individuals but also on the youth, aging adults, pregnant individuals, people living with disabilities, and many others within the community. Additionally, because unhoused individuals are disproportionately Black and Brown, anti-homeless architecture continues to reinforce racist ideologies embedded in our society by criminalizing people of color for being unhoused. Our society keeps these individuals oppressed with choices like anti-homeless architecture rather than focusing on homelessness prevention.
This is a vicious and intentional cycle that affects more than the unhoused alone. From a social worker’s perspective, housing and sleep are basic human rights for all individuals, not privileges. To act against anti-homeless architecture, we must support proposals that work to ban anti-homeless architecture, promote homelessness prevention by spreading this awareness, and advocate for local policy changes. No one deserves to be penalized for systemic failures.
Emily Lombardo
MSW student at Bridgewater State University
Work Cited
National Coalition for the Homeless. (2023). Design against humanity: The impacts of hostile architecture on people experiencing homelessness. Design Against Humanity Hostile Architecture paper 2023
Excellent paper and insights. I lived in Las Vegas many years ago where the warm weather provided a more accepting and forgiving environment for the homeless. Not at all unusual to stumble across “tent cities” of homeless living and sleeping in state parks and on city benches. Not sure if there was a conscious effort to employ anti-homeless architecture but it certainly wasn’t inviting.
Thank you for bringing awareness to a social blight most fail to acknowledge.