“They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness

Mitra Mokhtari; Carolyn Greene; Katharina Maier; Marta Marika Urbanik

doi:10.1177/23780231251347064

“They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness

Mitra Mokhtari
, Carolyn Greene
, Katharina Maier
, Marta Marika Urbanik

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences

University of Toronto
University of Winnipeg
University of Alberta

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH’s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced.

Original language	English
Article number	23780231251347064
Journal	Socius
Volume	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251347064
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan. 2025

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Keywords

by-law officers
governance
homelessness
possessions
social harm

Access to Document

10.1177/23780231251347064

Cite this

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abstract = "Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws{\textquoteright} daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH{\textquoteright}s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH{\textquoteright}s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced.",

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AU - Maier, Katharina

AU - Urbanik, Marta Marika

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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N2 - Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH’s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced.

AB - Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH’s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced.

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KW - governance

KW - homelessness

KW - possessions

KW - social harm

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ER -

“They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness

Abstract

UN SDGs

Keywords

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