Dr. Ken Hardy brings insightful work into the great quarter points of rage and lived experiences of communities often least exposed, excavating the emotional and social struggles invisible to most. One end of anchoring in his exploration is what he terms “psychological homelessness,” the alienation or feeling of invisibility and not belonging deeply within the societal fabric, starkly spotlighting how the emotional and psychological displacement of those on the fringes of mainstream life is created.
As Hardy notes, “Systemic oppression is not based on personal life circumstances but rather is structured in a manner that it links intricately with systemic oppression that perpetuates inequalities based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other social divisions.” This brief paper critically investigates how systematic oppression leads to psychological homelessness and looks at how the same takes place where I live within a community. Creating and synthesizing a discussion that squarely integrates practical examples with the debt burden of social reproduction will equip one with measures to curb systemic oppression or get rid of the basis that creates the sense of one being psychologically homeless.
Ken Hardy describes psychological homelessness as a deep sense of disconnection, invisibility, and not belonging to a person in the different communities or the general society. This idea likely concretizes the meaning of physical displacement, which is the feeling of emotional and social dislocation derived from marginalization or oppression by the systemic structures forming a society. It brings another massive reality, whereby it emotionally excludes its members in their environment, sincerely making it a feeling of exclusion and isolation.
This is the most closely connected condition, a related-ended and tightly woven blanket tapestry, if you will, strongly related to systemic oppression, multifaceted as it is, covering racism, sexism, classism, and others. In a way, such systemic barriers work concertedly to exacerbate this alienation and invisibility, lying at the heart of psychological homelessness. Such oppression cements the gaps in treatment and opportunities to create chasms even deeper emotionally for those it affects (Nash, 2023). Views of psychological homelessness as systemic oppression add up structurally: compared to psychological structures, they perpetuate inequalities and exclusion. That instead speaks to something that must almost change structurally to keep the depth of the disjunction spoken to.
I perceived psychological homelessness that happened in my community in several instances. Characteristically, the most observed of these are those people who belong to the marginalized section. For instance, there was the realization of an unfortunate event involving the public housing policy, which, in one way, dismisses racial minorities and low-income families, having restrictive criteria and long wait lists; a perfect model of some of the criteria that can be used to define that kind of policy.
This not only denies them their portion of safety and affordable housing but also concretes the sense of distance from the community tapestry while intensifying the feelings of invisibility and disconnectedness (Otiniano Verissimo et al., 2021). For instance, the curriculum fed to the learners in the education system, by way of examples, originated from those marginalized backgrounds but with no recognition in terms of representations regarding their cultures and histories, together with many other potential exclusions from educational content, leading to a disturbing build-up or a sense of invisibility amongst students, reinforcing emotional alienation typical of psychological homelessness.
The gentrification of neighborhoods usually considered underrepresented or marginalized has meant displacements of long-established communities. It is not only the economic results of displacement, late-onset homelessness, and isolation but also a deep sense of place, belonging, and security experienced by such communities. All the people so far identified have turned alien and inaccessible to those communities of the prevailing economic and social issues, altogether giving a grim form of psychological homelessness (Maybee, 2020). There are complexes of psychological homelessness experiences because of how it feels and emerges in the dynamic of race, socioeconomics, and gender.
Systemic oppression, conceived, penetrates the profound connected disconnection and invisibility in people’s lives through formative conceptualization in the perpetuation of psychological homelessness in marginalized communities. Such an oppressor is not monistic but created out of a complex relation in societal structures and normalized relations around racism, sexism, classism, and all kinds of discrimination (Wiewel & Hernandez, 2021). These are just a few systemic barriers that further emotionally and socially disempower people, denying them access to opportunities, resources, and some level of space where they can be seen, valued, and understood.
The concept of intersectionality is highly relevant in the manner in which various unique forms of subjugation interplay and come collectively within the experience of psychological homelessness. For people living with varying marginalized statuses, systemic oppression compounds such that they find themselves grappling with the feeling of psychological homelessness. For example, a low-income woman of color will probably offer a combination of race, gender, and economic status as cumulative factors that heighten her level of psychological homelessness (Nash, 2023). Essentially, “Dances with Wolves” provides a challenging but firm perspective on expanding cultural synthesis and combination that a nation with a 300-year history of driving ever westward endures.
From a postmodern perspective, one might even say that human history most closely resembles voluntary homelessness through the fission and fusion of cultures. Now, the intervention addressing psychological homelessness will have to root out this systemic barrier against engendering in ‘others’ a sense of belonging and empowerment. More generally, this has been pursued through community-based approaches that offer locally rooted solutions amenable to meeting various community needs and difficulties. Other efforts within the community, such as local support groups, community centers providing mental and social services, gaining education from educational initiatives, and increased acceptance, will be instrumental forces and contributors to a sense of belonging.
Policy changes addressing root causes contributing to systemic oppression also need to be included. Even as that implies antidiscrimination laws and punitive measures within housing and health, reforming the housing and health policies other countries have taken as points of reference for inclusion and access will be needed (Maybee, 2020). At the same time, to ensure that such systemic interventions are privileged at the request of voices and actual needs of those suffering firsthand from the phenomenon of psychological homelessness, specific workable solutions must also ensure they are active in the participation and enactment of those solutions.
All interventions needed to be empowerment-based and inclusive. They identify the immediacy of the effects of psychological homelessness, but they also create ways in which one might dismantle the systemic structures that uphold such values (Wiewel & Hernandez, 2021). That is to say, respect, understanding, and equal opportunity ensure and oversee the healing and wiping out of embodied wounds of psychological homelessness so that one can cultivate and include all citizens in society.
Delving further into the idea of psychological homelessness, it would be the hard labor of Dr. Ken Hard,y which would throw into solid relief not just the systemic oppression but the interconnections in the acts of oppression and the emotional dislocation members of such enfranchised communities feel. We have defined the term psychological homelessness, but in reference far beyond physical homelessness, as the profound sense of being unconnected and invisible, non-belonging, and finally, systemic barriers, among other things.
The very examples that are provided within the receiving community in such ways translate oppression into real-world experiences, given the very basis of what could have served to compound the expressed prevalence of psychological homelessness in the first place. Systemic oppression shows that this is not an isolated barrier in society but rather multi-dimensional and intersectional. We featured community-based approaches and empowerment with an eye toward inclusive processes able to develop achievable strategies for reducing the impacts of systemic oppression and engendering psychological homelessness.
In that case, identifying psychological homelessness becomes imperative in everything that would work best toward the emergence of more equitable or just societies. That would entail doing more research, actively engaging the community, and reconfiguring those policies. Above all, we will need to tear down all systemic barriers and deliver all-inclusive strategies that will birth a society where no one feels as though they are psychologically homeless. A voice that calls for all to hold their hands together in unison against systemic oppression and rebuild our communities into places of respect, empowerment, and inclusion.
Otiniano Verissimo, A. D., Henley, N., Gee, G. C., Davis, C., & Grella, C. (2021). Homelessness and discrimination among US adults: the role of intersectionality. Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, 32(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10530789.2021.1935650
Wiewel, B., & Hernandez, L. (2021). Traumatic Stress and Homelessness: A Review of the Literature for Practitioners. Clinical Social Work Journal, 50(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00824-w
Maybee, J. E. (2020, January 6). Homelessness, Disability, and Oppression. Brill.com; Brill. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004420366/BP000031.xml
Nash, J. (2023, December 20). PIE recipes: An Exploration of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) in Homelessness Services. Repository.uel.ac.uk. https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8x0x7