An Essay on Exit Scenarios from the Housing Precarity Feeding Middle Class Homelessness Fears
Meriç KırmızıIn the increasingly precarious atmosphere of today’s neoliberal society, the issue of housing, as a fundamental human right, is becoming precarious in a way that includes the middle classes. This study addresses the problem of housing precarity and homelessness among the middle class, little studied in urban studies and, mostly presented as a success story. The study examines the structural changes that are at the root of these problems and the ways out of them. The issue of housing insecurity as a precondition for homelessness, understood as a social process with its before and after, is presented through a detailed literature review and thematic document analysis. The study, based on an analysis of 82 national and international documents collected under the keywords housing precarity, middle class and homelessness, first defines in detail the problems of housing precarity and homelessness of the middle class and then looks for types of housing that offer alternatives to the precarious housing market. The next section discusses the gaps and contradictions in the literature on housing alternatives and offers theoretical and empirical alternatives. For example, house sharing, which is presented as an alternative in some studies, is criticized as a product of the system in others. This study contributes by pointing to the potential of concepts of the urban commons, the feminist city and social infrastructure as supporting mechanisms in the search for alternative housing. Finally, the paper presents proposals to address the problems of housing precarity and homelessness that also affect the middle class in Türkiye.
Orta Sınıfın Evsizlik Kaygısını Besleyen Konut Güvencesizliğinden Çıkış Senaryoları Üzerine Bir Deneme
Meriç KırmızıGünümüz neoliberal toplumunun artan güvencesizlik ortamında, insanların ana haklarından biri olan barınma konusu orta sınıfları da içine alan bir biçimde güvencesizleşiyor. Bu çalışma kent çalışmalarında az çalışılan ve çalışıldığında bir başarı öyküsü olarak sunulan bir topluluk olan orta sınıfların konut güvencesizliği ve evsizlik sorununu ele almaktadır. Çalışma aynı zamanda, bu sorunların kökünde yatan yapısal değişimleri ve bunlardan çıkış yollarını incelemektedir. Öncesi ve sonrasıyla toplumsal bir süreç olarak değerlendirilen evsizliğin bir öncülü olarak görülen konut güvensizliği konusu kapsamlı bir kaynak taraması ve tematik belge çözümlemesi yoluyla ortaya koyulmaktadır. Konut güvencesizliği, orta sınıf ve evsizlik anahtar sözcükleriyle derlenen, yerli ve yabancı 82 belgenin çözümlemesine dayanan çalışma, öncelikle orta sınıfın konut güvencesizliği ve evsizlik sorununu ayrıntılı olarak tanımlamaktadır. Ardından güvencesiz konut piyasasına seçenek sunan barınma türlerini araştırmaktadır. İzleyen bölüm konut seçeneklerine ilişkin yazındaki eksiklikleri ve çelişkileri tartışmakta ve yeni kuramsal ve deneysel seçenekler getirmektedir. Örneğin, kimi çalışmalarda bir seçenek olarak sunulan konut paylaşımı, başka çalışmalarda düzenin bir ürünü olarak eleştirilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın katkısı konut seçeneği arayışında destekleyici mekanizmalar olarak var olan kentsel ortaklıklar, feminist kent ve toplumsal altyapı kavramlarının olanaklarına dikkat çekmesidir. Son olarak, makale Türkiye’de orta sınıfı da etkisine alan konut güvencesizliği ve evsizlik sorunlarını ele almak için kaynak taramasından esinlenmiş öneriler sunmaktadır.
It is possible to speak of the existence of a middle-class backlash in contemporary societies, which Mills diagnosed in the USA in the 1950. Mills (1969, p. 249) explained this decline in middle-class power, which he defined as the “status proletarianization” of the white-collar strata, in terms of the structural changes in working life at the time, such as rationalization, the decline in the importance of white-collar workers’ education and experience, the decline in their incomes relative to the working class and their incorporation into the unemployed class, and the expansion of the middle-class labor market. Similar conditions seem to apply to the Turkish middle class today. Despite definitional problems, the middle class in Türkiye is estimated at 10-15 million people, and their living conditions are becoming more difficult by the day. In particular, low- and middle-income groups, whose purchasing power has decreased and who do not own a home, face the problem of housing precarity. In terms of housing costs, Türkiye is now above the European and OECD averages.
Although housing, a fundamental human right, has become precarious in a way that includes the middle class in a volatile economic atmosphere, the (new) middle class has received less attention in recent urban studies than the lower or upper classes (McEwan, 2021). When it is studied, it is presented as a success story as a class that invades the city, displacing lower income groups and gentrifying or even discriminating against other social groups (Atkinson, 2006; Saraçoğlu, 2009; Şen, 2011). This study aims to fill this gap in research on the middle class by exploring housing precarity and the possibility of homelessness, the structural changes that underlie them, and ways out of them. In studies of homelessness in Türkiye, issues such as social services, (Acar et al., 2022; Balun & Şişman, 2022; Doğan & Pekasıl, 2021; Kanlı & Efe, 2021; Yeter, 2018), urban renewal as a process of “de-housing” (Baydar & Karakız, 2018, p. 154) and different homeless groups such as the elderly or middle-aged men (Gürel, Karaman & Yaman, 2024; Kaya Kılıç & Aslantürk, 2019) come to the fore. However, the issue of housing inadequacy and precariousness of the middle class has not been thoroughly investigated.
This paper accepts homelessness not as a situation, but as a dynamic process (Lee, Shinn & Culhane, 2021) and looks at its before and after in terms of the middle class. This study, inspired by personal housing experiences, firstly situates the problem of the housing precarity of the declining middle class in the international literature. The study collects academic work on housing precarity, the middle class and homelessness. A total of 82 documents are used, including 29 English articles, which have been refined according to relevance, date and number of citations from Web of Science; 12 Turkish articles from Google Scholar; company data and statistical news bulletins (6); newspaper news and columns (16); and encyclopedia entries, congress presentations, book articles and books (19). The information gathered from these documents is analyzed thematically.
Precarity is a human condition that is not limited to housing, but affects many social spheres, such as working life. This concept, which generally means “a general, pervasive ontological condition of vulnerability, displacement, and insecurity”, is in some ways associated with capitalism and its neoliberal phase (Kasmir, 2018). In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, a “precarity turn” has been spoken of, particularly in the field of labor geography (Bergan, Gorman-Murray & Power, 2021, p. 1208). However, the concept of housing precarity is a more recent use (Debrunner, Hofer, Wicki, Kauer & Kaufmann, 2024). Clair, Reeves, McKee & Stuckler (2019, p. 16) define housing precariousness as “a state of uncertainty which increases a person’s real or perceived likelihood of experiencing an adverse event, caused (at least in part) by their relationship with their housing provider, the physical qualities, affordability, security of their home, and access to essential services”.
The meaning of housing, classically conceived as “long-term and stable tenure, a site of reprieve from work, and a location of privatized family relationships” (Bergan et al., 2021, p. 1217) and an important place in people’s lives as a living space that provides well-being, life satisfaction and quality (Bobek, Pembroke & Wickham, 2021), is changing rapidly in today’s conditions. At the same time, a shift towards tenancy in traditional homeowner societies is being observed (Kemp, 2015; Waldron, 2023). Waldron (2023, p. 181) explains “generation rent”, i.e., people being trapped in tenancy more and for longer, and the associated expansion of the rental market with the commodification and financialization of housing after the 2000s, changing the tacit middle-class social contract based on home ownership. The result of all this is what Bobek et al. (2021) call as “non-linear housing careers” (Bobek et al., 2021, p. 1365), i.e., prolonged tenancy, not leaving or returning to the family home, known as “boomerang children” or “parasite singles” (Bobek et al., 2021, p. 1367), and horizontal or downward housing mobility such as house sharing.
The works that deal with housing precarity within the system do not question the ideal of home ownership on which middle class dreams (e.g., the suburban house, the car and the nuclear family as in the American dream) are based, dependent on meritocracy and provided by the capitalist system. The works that approach the issue by challenging the neoliberal city of the capitalist system, which causes housing precarity along with many other problems, look for housing concepts and types outside the systemic proposals. In doing so, these studies adopt more collective (communal), solidarity-based, care-oriented, anarchist or feminist approaches, leaving the liberal framework aside. House sharing, which is presented as an alternative in some studies, is criticized as a product of the system in others. This contradiction shows that sharing alone may not be sufficient to create an anti-capitalist housing alternative. Some commonalities found in the literature include themes such as the rise of renting over home ownership, people’s growing search for a housing alternative, and a critique of the victimization of the displaced and the homeless. This study contributes by pointing to the potential of concepts of the urban commons (Stavrides, 2018), the feminist city (Kern, 2020) and social infrastructure (Latham & Layton, 2022) as supporting mechanisms in the search for alternative housing.
Finally, as an exit strategy suggestion for the issues of homelessness and housing, which have increasingly become a site of power relations and contestation between family and other groups, the study suggests that the counter-argument be properly framed, the data properly interpreted, housing activism and social housing production expanded.
