Study shows Kelowna's homeless population is forced to 'play up' homelessness to access support

Photo: Colin Dacre file photo

Researchers studying people living on the streets of Kelowna say homeless people feel the need to “perform” to access support services.

“It is about looking homeless, but not too homeless,” one study participant told researchers with the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Dr. Shelley Cook and Dr. Rachelle Hole of the School of Social Work recently published a study that attempts to understand the relationship between homeless people and the system of services they depend on.

The fieldwork took place downtown Kelowna where a number of men and women without homes, aged between 23 and 55, were interviewed. Contrary to the findings from earlier research on homelessness, Cook found people who live on the street depend on service providers as their main source of material and social support — not their relationships with each other.

While each person has different reasons for becoming homeless, Cook says they all learn through their interactions with different services to perform 'as homeless' in particular ways based on the expectations of the service providers.

Social service providers are often over-burdened and have to be somewhat selective on who they can help.

“In a situation where need greatly outpaces the ability of the service system—where there’s only so many beds or bus tickets available—performing those representations of homelessness aligned with the service setting is all the more important,” says Cook. “It’s a necessary survival strategy that people use to increase their odds of making it on the street.”

Hole says performances of homeless identity take on different expressions even between similar service organizations. Previous research has shown that homeless people not only recognize what representations of homelessness were being promoted through the organization and adapted their performance to reflect these indicators, they were also aware they were doing it.

“In trying to make sense of where they took their cues from for their performances, participants discussed how they were often encouraged by service providers to ‘play up’ their social support or health-related needs,” adds Hole.

While this improves the odds of homeless people getting the services they need, Cook says the fact that people feel they need to ‘perform’ in order to get appropriate services, has the effect of reinforcing a homeless identity.

“With competition for resources contributing to the need for these performances that are in part, a side-effect of challenges related to service capacity, the problematic dynamic will persist as long as capacity issues do,” she adds.

Cook says it is clear that those who live on the street people are always trying to fit themselves into a ‘service box’ in order to get the resources they need to survive. And it’s time for practitioners and policymakers to recognize how the systems of services provided actually reinforce that homeless identity.

While the research was done on the streets of Kelowna, Cook says the issue is not exclusive to the region and is consistent with other communities.