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Transcript of Social Establisment
The Role of Social Establishment
In Defining a Stigmatized Social Identity
Bart W. Miles, School of Social Work, Arizona State University
Scott W. Renshaw, Department of Sociology, Arizona State University
Stephen J. Sills, Department of Sociology, Arizona State University
Paper submitted to Symbolic Interaction December 2002. This paper results from the video documentary and ethnographic study “Street Life on Mill” with support from the Center for Urban Inquiry, Arizona State University.
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Keywords: ........................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5
Homelessness .................................................................................................................. 5
Homelessness in Tempe.................................................................................................. 7
Methods............................................................................................................................... 8
Visual Methods ............................................................................................................... 8
Methods of Analysis ..................................................................................................... 10
Conceptual Considerations................................................................................................ 10
Teams ............................................................................................................................ 14
Stigma ........................................................................................................................... 15
Analysis and Findings ....................................................................................................... 16
Homeless Team............................................................................................................. 16
Homeless Dramaturgical Loyalty............................................................................... 19
Homeless Dramaturgical Discipline........................................................................... 20
Homeless Dramaturgical Circumspection .................................................................. 21
DTC Team..................................................................................................................... 22
DTC Dramaturgical Loyalty, Discipline, & Circumspection..................................... 24
City Team...................................................................................................................... 26
City Dramaturgical Loyalty........................................................................................ 28
City Dramaturgical discipline..................................................................................... 28
City Dramaturgical Circumspection........................................................................... 29
Interaction of Teams...................................................................................................... 30
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Conclusions and Recommendations.................................................................................. 34
References .................................................................................................................. 36
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Abstract:
Keywords:
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They need more places to help the kids out here. I’ve met twelve year olds out on the streets down here… And no one really helps them… All the PD [Police Department] do is arrest us and harass us... the State doesn’t care anymore. It’s sad…The Sally [Salvation Army] helps out a little bit…Excuse me [begins spanging passerbys] ‘Spare a little bit of change? Have a nice night’… ‘Could you guys spare some change?’… ‘Could you guys spare a little change?’… No one really cares out here anymore, they are more interested in image. And image isn’t’ every thing…it’s how you treat the people! ‘Excuse me nice people, spare a little change… you guys have a nice night…’ (E.T.)
Introduction
Homelessness
Homelessness is a pervasive social issue in most urban settings in the United
States. It has been a longstanding social concern, but in the past twenty-five years it has
emerged as a major social problem with civic, political and moral ramifications. The
emergence of homelessness as a social problem was especially evident in the public
policy discourse of the 1980s. It was in the late 1970s and early 80s when the image of
homelessness expanded and changed from prior conceptions due to the growing number
of homeless. The image of homelessness was no longer isolated to the skid row, hobos,
and tramps of earlier decades (Duffield, 2001). Moreover, the discourse regarding the
issues of homelessness increased due to the visibility of the homeless (Schlay & Rossi,
1992; Sommer, 2001). These more visible homeless were younger, more often minorities,
and more frequently women and children (Duffield, 2001; Takahashi, 1997; Sossin,
1999; Mitchell, 1997). The growth of the homeless problem had multiple contributing
factors including: decreases in public assistance, economic transformations (a shift to
global marketing and service-based economy), deinstitutionalization, lack of affordable
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housing and healthcare, domestic violence, mental illness, and substance addictions
(Duffield, 2001; Schlay & Rossi, 1992; Sommer, 2001; Sossin, 1999; Takahashi, 1997).
This new visible image of homelessness in the 1980’s lead to a shift in federal
policies (i.e. Stewart McKinney Act), which helped stimulate a tremendous growth in
homeless services. Yet, these efforts lacked the ability to stem the tide of an ever-growing
population of homeless leading to compassion fatigue. The 1990’s saw an increase in
welfare cuts and political conservatism. These cuts, combined with the economic boom
of the 1990’s, lead to a shift in responsibility for the homeless, increasingly placing it on
the local level as the federal government decreased assistance. Furthermore, U.S.
economic growth of the 1990’s created a push for community redevelopment, which, due
to a lack of affordable commercial spaces, focused on areas where the homeless resided.
Thus, new laws and practices aimed against the homeless were created to remove them
from potential commercial spaces (Aguirre & Brooks, 2001; Mitchell, 1997; Oakley,
2002; Snow & Mulcahy, 2001; Takahashi, 1998). While homelessness was no longer
seen as a social problem the homeless themselves were increasingly stigmatized and seen
as the problem. Anti-homeless sentiment became prevalent throughout the country as the
homeless threatened the attractiveness of the image that cities were attempting to portray.
Often the new local anti-homeless policies were sponsored and encouraged by
local officials and neighborhood businesses organizations. These laws were linked to the
increase in negative public perception and caustic treatment of the homeless (Hocking &
Lawrence 2000; Nieves, 2000; Phillips, 2000; Sossin, 1999; Takahashi, 1997; 1998). This
negative standpoint was fundamental to the construction of a stigmatized identity
(Farrington & Robinson 1999; Rosenthal, 2000; Takahashi, 1997; Williams, 1995).
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Stigmatization was utilized then by policy makers to sustain or enhance local level anti-
homeless policies (Phillips, 2000; Susser, 1996; Sossin, 1999; Takahashi, 1997; 1998).
According to Mitchell (1997), the homeless were not even acknowledged as citizens of
our cities. This exclusion, along with the social stigma placed upon them, became
fundamental to the anti-homeless sentiment. As a result, local anti-homeless policies
became an attempt to make the homeless invisible (Agurirre & Brooks, 2001; Mitchell,
1997; Rosenthal, 2000; & Snow & Mulcahy, 2001).
Homelessness in Tempe
Tempe, Arizona exemplifies this trend of anti-homeless treatment as a result of
urban redevelopment. Sarah Brinegar (2000), in her article Response to homelessness in
Tempe, Arizona: public opinion and government policy, focuses on the shift in homeless
policies in Tempe. She explains that presently Tempe has a “leaf blower policy” towards
the homeless. Officials attempt to move the problem of homelessness with the hopes that
it will stay away. The City of Tempe has between 500-750 homeless, depending on the
reports (Brzuzy, 2001; Tempe Community Council 2000), 40% of whom are between 18-
23.i Yet, Tempe has no shelters, soup kitchens, and very little in the way of relief
(Brinegar, 2000; Brzuzy, 2001).ii In recent years, the city of Tempe has passed several
anti-homeless laws criminalizing homelessness and also provides a clear example of the
use of privatization of public space to restrict the visibility of the homeless (Holthouse,
1998). Tempe has no shelter; yet residing in public spaces (urban camping law) and even
sitting on the sidewalk (or the side of streets) are illegal. Therefore, no one meeting the
Congressional definitioniii of homeless can live in Tempe without violating present laws.
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This desire for the homeless to go away parallels the recent trend of urban redevelopment
and criminalization of homelessness across the country (NLCHP, 2002).
This project then stems from questions about the interrelationship between the
City of Tempe, the Downtown Tempe Community (an organization sponsored by the city
which represents downtown businesses), and homeless young people (the largest group of
homeless in Tempe). Through the use of Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis, it seeks to
understand the relationship of the social establishment in defining the stigmatized social
identity of homelessness.
Methods
This project employs critical ethnography and participatory research methods.
Critical ethnography witnesses the voices and stories of the marginalized people through
a critical dialogue about power and inequality (Pignatelli, 1998). This paper represents
the accumulation of information, experiences, and understanding of over seven months of
fieldwork by two ethnographers and over twenty homeless participants. Participants were
recruited during a phase of rapport building and information gathering which lasted from
early July 2001 to late September 2001. The goal of participatory research is to enable
marginalized groups to acquire creative and transforming power with in a research
project, and to develop socio-political thought processes with which the larger society
can identify (Hall, 1993).
Visual Methods
Traditional ethnographic methods of interviewing, observation, and document
analysis were employed as well as more innovative participatory video ethnography
(Collier & Collier, 1986; Crawford & Turton, 1992; Hockings, 1995; Loizos, 1993;
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Ruby, 2000). By nature, visual media, especially when used as participatory research, has
great potential for giving voice and vision to disenfranchised populations (Wang et. al.,
1996). For this reason, both participants and ethnographers collaborated in filming,
production, and presentation. Video was shot of spontaneous field interviews, more
formal semi-structured interviews, as well as of observations of group life in the
homeless “families.” As ethnography, the research was carried out in a naturalistic
setting, involving face-to-face contact between researcher and participants. Through a
triangulation of perspectives, the project constructs a realistic reflection of the nature of
the social phenomenon of homelessness. The final presentation of accumulated material
was in the form of a documentary video presented at a public forum with invited city
officials, homeless advocacy groups, university faculty, and homeless persons. Primary
data used then for analysis in this paper originates in the forty hours of video shot
between October and December 2001.
The social sciences, and sociology in particular, have historically been less
concerned with visual methods.
Only a very small proportion of sociological papers and monographs have photographic materials integrated in their published format…. The rule appears to be that sociology is primarily a verbal rather than visually communicated discipline; or, to be more precise, that tables, graphs, and histograms appear to be the sociologist’s preferred visual data (Ball & Smith 1992; p. 11).
Ball and Smith point out that even the seminal ethnographies of sociology (Asylums,
Street Corner Society, etc.) relied on textual accounts alone. Audiovisual techniques, on
the other hand, provide an alternative or supplement to the extensive written record that is
the hallmark of traditional ethnography, while enhancing the ability of the ethnographers
to observe by creating a broader and permanent record of the events (Schensul, et al.
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1999). In this case, while the notes and field experiences of the ethnographers were
paramount in developing an understanding of the stigma of homelessness, the videos
provided a “document” that could be reviewed and coded by multiple researchers in an
effort to build inter-subjectivity and greater reliability in findings (Lincoln & Guba, 2000;
Altheide & Johnson, 1998). Likewise, key examples of phenomenon could be drawn
from the tapes, and used to illustrate those findings.
Method of Analysis
Utilizing Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis we assess the impact of social
establishment on the stigmatization of homeless young people as a team. This analysis
depends on the definitions of three key concepts of Goffman: social establishment, team,
and stigma. We also will speak to the impact of stigmatization on other teams and the
interrelationship with the stigmatized group and to each other. The analysis will begin
with impression management. Next, it will address the problems of impression
management of the teams framed in the context of the social establishment. The final
aspect of this analysis will focus on the relational interactions among the teams. This
paper will conclude with suggestions on how these relationships and stigmatizations of
this population might be changed through discourse and communication.
Conceptual Considerations
We adopt and conceptually expanded Goffman’s (1959; pp. 238-242) analytical
framework for studying the social establishment; we utilize Goffman’s framework to
analyze the social dynamics associated to the homeless situation on Mill Avenue in
Tempe AZ. Some preliminary considerations are needed. We recognize that Goffman’s
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Deleted: (culture and social structure)
Deleted: “formal and abstract”
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formal and abstract analytical framework is a conceptual, intellectual, and linguistic
construct defining a bounded region (form) of a constellation of social acts (functions).
Further, to study social establishments, Goffman (1959) states that there are four
traditional perspectives: technical; structural; political; and cultural. Goffman’s (1959)
sociology adds the fifth: the dramaturgical intersection among the four traditional
perspectives. Technical is defined as an organized system of activity with pre-designed
objectives. Political may be explained as the power to demand actions of other
participants and the ways of enacting that power. The structural perspective is the
division of statuses. The cultural may be seen as moral values that influence daily activity
(Goffman, E. 1959). This framework allows us to analyze social interaction and make
generalizing statements about social establishments and the activities that occur in a
bounded region.
For Goffman “a social establishment is any place surrounded by fixed barriers of
perception in which a particular type activity regularly take place” (Goffman, 1959 pp.
238). Goffman generally refers to a social establishment and its fixed barriers of
perception “as those formal organizations that are lodged within the confines of a single
building or complex of adjacent buildings” (Goffman,
1961:176). Also for Goffman
(1961b), social establishments generate activity systems. Activity systems are framed by
the clock, breaks, lunchtime, physical objects, and the bueurecratic scheduling of
everyday business operations. They are the buzz of social interactions, social acts, and
conversations of gestures develop a regularity, a routine, a stability. Activity systems are
the social establishment’s daily round.
Deleted: 1957/
Deleted: lunch time
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Goffman’s dramaturgical mode of analysis is employed to explain the patterns
observable activities that are found in the intersection of culture, politics, structure and
Figure 1 - Mill Avenue Bounded Region
technology. It focuses on techniques of impression management, problems of impression
management, and the identity and interrelationship of several performance teams, which
operate in the social establishment (Goffman, 1959). With the dramaturgical mode of
analysis, our projected selves are both influenced and maintained by impression
management through a conversation of gestures. Impression management further
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employs dramaturgical loyalty, discipline, circumspection, and teamwork in the
definition of the situation. With Dramaturgical Loyalty (1959:212), we impression
manage to maintain a social establishment's activity system, as well as our individual
performances. Dramaturgical Discipline (1959:216) demands that we have performance
discipline as we loyally impression manage to maintain a social establishment's activity
system and our impressions on others. With Dramaturgical Circumspection (1959:218),
we think in advance and prepare for our loyal and disciplined impressions to maintain a
social establishment’s activity system. Goffman notes that we use Teamwork (1956c:47-
65,140-5; 1959:77-105, 226-37) as a group level of impression management thus
maintaining the social establishment’s activity system.
We expand the conceptual boundaries of Goffman’s social establishment and
analytical framework to include the cluster of social establishments that are bounded by
the dynamics of Tempe’s Arizona’s Mill Avenue [See Fig. 1]. We also assume that
numerous activity systems overlap within and extend beyond the bounded region of Mill
Avenue. We acknowledge that a technical, political, structural, cultural, and
dramaturgical analysis of these clustered activity systems is possible, but beyond the
scope of this report. Therefore, for analytical purposes we utilize Goffman’s (1961b)
situated activity system to conceptually contain the constellation of those situational-
interactions that are lodged within the Mill Avenue setting. Here we also acknowledge
that the interaction order within this situated activity system is immense. However,
within our situated activity system we do expand Goffman’s ideas on Teams to describe
the mezzo level impression management that influences, maintains, and projects
definitions of homelessness in the interaction among three teams on Tempe’s Mill
Deleted: 1956c:137;
Deleted: 1956c:139;
Deleted: analytical reach
14
Avenue (the homeless; the Downtown Tempe Community, Inc.; and the City of Tempe)
[See Fig.2].
Figure 2 - Interactions within Social Establishment
Teams
A team may then be defined as a set of individuals whose intimate cooperation is required if a given projected definition of the situation is to be maintained. A team is a grouping, but it is not in relation to a social structure or social organization but rather in relation to an interaction or a series of interactions in which the relevant definitions of the situation is maintained. (Goffman, 1959 pp. 104)
Goffman points out that a team is always in progress and requires continuous
collaboration amongst the members. Team performances have both front regions and
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back regions. The front region is where the performance for the audience occurs. The
back region (or back stage) is where the performers engaging in behaviors inconsistent
with their public “performance” (Goffman, 1959). The front region for all three teams is
Mill Avenue’s public arena. The back region for Mill Avenue’s homeless are the “squats”
found in abandoned buildings, alleys, underneath bridges, and other sheltered spaces
where they may participate in daily activities out of the public view. . The back regions
for the Downtown Tempe Community, Inc.; and the City of Tempe, on the other hand,
are the meetings and conferences associated with their given formal organizations. It is
here that these teams make the policy decisions that heighten stigmatization of the
homeless.
Within the setting of the front region, the team must maintain its’ performance, so
the members follow the three principles of impression management. The first principle is
dramaturgical loyalty, or moral obligation to the teams’ line of performance. The second
is dramaturgical discipline, -the ability to play a part with out faux pas and to monitor
and respond to any disruptions of the performance. The third is dramaturgical
circumspection, the ability to exercise foresight and design in how best to perform the
show (Goffman, 1959).
Stigma
Goffman sees stigma as an attribute of a persons “social identity” that is deeply
discrediting. He states that there are three different types of stigma. These are
abominations of the body; blemishes in individual character; and tribal stigma. This
presentation is in particular concerned with the blemishes of individual character. Yet,
while individuals may be stigmatized for personal characteristics they often come
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together into a sub-community, or social milieu, and are defined by the mainstream
community as social deviants (Goffman, 1963).
If there is to be a field of inquiry called “deviance,” it is social deviants as here defined that would presumably constitute its core. Prostitutes, drug addicts, delinquents, criminals, jazz musicians, bohemians, gypsies, carnival workers, hobos, winos, show people, full time gamblers, beach dwellers, homosexuals, and the urban unrepentant poor--these would be included. (Goffman, 1963 pp. 143-144)
Moreover, social deviants may embrace the label and engage in further stigmatized
performances of deviance. Goffman points out that social deviants’ refusal to accept their
place is tolerated within the community providing that it functions as an example of the
consequences of deviating from the norm. Along with this concept of deviance and
stigma, Goffman identifies a “professional performance code” of the social deviant. The
essential aspect of this code are: knowing the patterns of revealing and concealing
stigma; maintaining interactions with the broader community; understanding kinds of
prejudices that are to be either ignored and/or challenged; finding the acceptable level of
performance of stigma; as well as identifying and taking pride in one’s group (Goffman,
1963).
Analysis and Findings
Homeless Team
Homeless young adults, as well as those under 18 years old, comprise a
significant number of the homeless population in Tempe (Brzuzy, 2000) and the trend of
large numbers of youth and young adults in America’s homeless population has been
cited throughout the research (United States Conference of Mayors, 2002; Urban
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Institute, 1999). These youth are sometimes affiliated with groups such as “gutter punks”,
“rainbow children”, or other transient sub-cultures. The “Scum of Tempe” is a great
example of this homeless group affiliation and identity as a social deviant. They declare
this affiliation by tagging iv that identifies their back region areas and other markings on
clothing or even body that identified them as Scum. This group is represented by some of
the long time and more permanent homeless young people in a setting characterized by a
seasonal homeless population.v Many in this group take street names accompanied by the
surname Scum to identify themselves as members of this street “family.” In various
conversations, Seven, Forty, Cowboy, Tweety and J Scum explain some of the ways in
which Team boundaries may be maintained:
Seven [The Scum of Tempe] is nothing like a gang its just bunch of people watching out for everybody else. Trying to make sure that everybody is safe. And taking the people who shouldn’t be on the Avenue, taking them to the tracks and telling them to get lost in one-way or another…
Forty Those are the ones who are making stupid mistakes… Like robbing, starting fights, stealing…
Seven Yeah like starting fights and stealing… we don’t do that. We come up with our own money. Yeah it might be from everybody else. But we will never go in a store and jack anything. We don’t do that… We’re just trying to make sure that everybody is safe. And if we find out someone was beaten or messed with, we find out who did it and we take care of the problem.
__________________________ Cowboy What we are about right now…we try to help people out. If somebody needs help we try to help them out. If you need a sleeping bag we’ll get it for yah, you need to know where to go clean up and take a shower…if you’re hungry if I got money in my pocket I give it to you to something to eat. That’s exactly how it is…
__________________________
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Tweety If you’re here and you’re scum and you want to call other scums you yell…
J Scum HEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BBOOOOOBBBBBBBBB!!!!!!!!
Tweety That’s what you do….
Another major form of homeless identity is found in the unification of the
homeless in the drum circle held every weekend. Here a sizeable group of
homeless and othersvi gather to dance and socialize while perhaps a dozen or so
people play drums, flutes, and other instruments. The younger homeless and older
homeless; the “gutter punks” and the “rainbow children”; and the “old school”
homeless and the “newbies” all gather together.
There are two major problems with maintaining impressions of this stigmatized
group as a unified team. The first of these is the fluid nature of the homeless population
in the Tempe area. Of the homeless participants in this project, only a handful remains in
Tempe throughout the year. As a result, socialization of new team members may be
hampered. The lack of knowledge of team codes and difficulty of managing a large
performance team are vital elements in the problem of performance. The second problem
is the inability of an actor to maintain the performance over time. A key feature of this
problem is the fact that many young homeless people have mental illnesses or are
substance users (McCaskill, Toro, & Wolfe, 1998; Pavis & Cunningham-Burley, 1999;
Robertson & Toro, 1998; Shlay, & Rossi, 1992; Whitbeck. & Hoyt,1999). Mental illness
may in fact be such a problem for team performance as to completely exclude the
individual entirely from membership. In one case, a homeless male with possible
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schizophrenia was found to be incapable of even typical survival skills such as
panhandling, and was excluded from group participation. In another case, Taxman
explains: “a lot of people are homeless because they have no choice they have mental
illnesses. Like me I suffer from borderline schizophrenia, which makes it extremely hard
to get a job because I’m not on medication.” Additionally, though Taxman does associate
with the homeless team, he sometimes is forced by his illness to become isolated (for
example by incarceration for violent acts). Therefore the individual may be limited by
impairments of cognition, due to mental illness or substance use, which prohibit them
from successfully maintaining the expected team perforce.
Disruptions in team performance may lead to removal of the individual to the
backstage region by other team members. This allows the group to maintain the expected
public performance and thereby reduce the risks to the group caused by individual actors.
Frequently, when codes are violated in front stage regions, thus drawing attention from
other teams (DTC, City Officials, etc.), there may be negative consequences for the entire
team, as well as the individual actor. Adherence to team codes is maintained through
dramaturgical loyalty, dramaturgical discipline, and dramaturgical circumspection.
Homeless Dramaturgical Loyalty
As previously explained, Goffman’s concept of dramaturgical loyalty involves the
ability of an individual, or group, to adhere the appropriate performance. This concept
applies well to the performance of Tempe’s homeless young people as a team. This
stigmatized population has a code that is to be followed. The Scum of Tempe, one of the
larger homeless groups in the city, has both formal and informal norms (with clear
20
sanctions) for new team members and even homeless individuals who are simply passing
through. Seven and Forty Scum explain how they socialize new members to these norms:
Seven Like when we hit up people for change, it’s like nobody with kids and nobody like over the age of our parents… It’s standard… you can’t go hitting up people that are like 65. They already worked their asses off and ain’t going to give you shit anyways. It just code of ethics… If we’re sitting in front of a store sometimes they get pissed off, and we are like ‘look we’re letting them go into your store let them give you there money and then they come out and then we hit them up’. So we both make out. Some stores don’t’ understand that, but yet a lot of them will see what is going on and eventually stop calling the cops on us.
Forty Another main function is to help out the newbies, the kids that just got on the streets…
Seven …Yeah, telling them where they can got take showers, telling them were they can go find food. Show them the ropes. Don’t do this.. don’t hit that person up .. don’t talk to him… don’t ask any cop what time it is…
Homeless Dramaturgical Discipline
Dramaturgical discipline is the various social controls utilized by a team to assure
dramaturgical loyalty, or adherence to the code. One example of dramaturgical discipline
is the previously noted group sanction for violation of the code by “taking them down to
the tracks” and “teaching them a lesson.” This statement implies the outright use of force
and even violence to censure team members and maintain dramaturgical loyalty. Another
example of dramaturgical discipline as a means of maintaining the performance is to
“pull him off the street,” meaning to take someone out of the front stage performance
area and bring them backstage.
Seven …when he [points to Cowboy] is tanked, we have to make sure that he
doesn’t get in trouble and pull him away from people and turn him away
21
from things he shouldn’t go do. [Like] trying to start fights with
everybody. Usually he is really, really trashed and we are half buzzed, and
we have to watch out for him.
Cowboy …it’s the other way around…
Seven And when we are really, really trashed and he is half buzzed, he has to
take care of us. Otherwise we will get the blue and white taxi called on us
[police].
Homeless Dramaturgical Circumspection
While Dramaturgical Loyalty is seen in the “code” of the homeless team, and discipline
in the sanctioning of its members, dramaturgical circumspection is the internal rehearsal
or preplanning of the performance. Often, the public actions of the homeless team are
found to be premeditated, practiced, and deliberate. Dramaturgical circumspection is
common in the activities of work and “spanging”vii. Though homeless, many on the street
have jobs where concealment of their stigmatized status becomes important:
Terri Some people look like they’re the kid next door. There are some people that might take great pains to keep their clothes clean and shower and they don’t even look like they are homeless. There are people that get up and go to work everyday and still don’t have a place to stay. I did that, I did that for a while.… I got a job, and I would get up and go to the methadone clinic, to get my medicine. And then I would go to work. I worked at a telemarketing job, I just was an awful telemarketer…My boss knew that I was homeless and he felt sorry for me so he didn’t fire me. But everybody there was totally mean to me. Even though I would go and take showers at the airport, at a service agency, a shelter or something. I would make sure to take showers and wear deodorant. But people would still think I was dirty or that I smelled, and they treated me like a leper. Everyday I would go to work and then sleep on the ground at night… [When spanging] people say all the time “get a job,” but it is harder than you would think. If you don’t have an address or a phone number to put on an application, then you’ll have to tell them you’re homeless. You can’t shower every morning, and what are you going to do with your clothes. I don’t have an office wardrobe. And if you have to tell your boss that your homeless,
22
because you don’t; have an address or phone number, then they think she’s going to steal or she’s on drugs or she must be a prostitute, or she’s gonna be smelly. So people aren’t going to hire someone who is homeless, they don’t trust a homeless person. You know it really is pretty hard…
Circumspection is evident in the concealment of the stigmatized identity by her careful
consideration of dress, hygiene, and residence. While concealment of one’s poverty is the
strategy for those who are employed, emphasis of one’s poverty is the tactic for
spanger's. The stigma of homelessness is seen to increase their income when spanging.
Thus, revealing and performing the stigmatized role is essential:
Seven So I walk over and plant my ass on the wall… And I’m all sad and pathetic… and I say [voice softens to a whisper] ‘Excuse me can you guys spare any change..’ and the dude looks at me and digs through his wallet and hands me 2 bucks. And I’m like God bless you sir you don’t know how much this means…
You got any spare change…Please help out the disadvantaged… could I have your leftovers….
While performing, the spanger may even purposefully adapt the pitch to the passerby:
E.T. My friend over here calls me master spanger. I’ll switch in and out of different voices, different lingo’s… because I notice like he is a gangster, so I will go to his lingo, or he is a stoner so I will go to his lingo… It’s fun….
In these examples, we find that dramaturgical circumspection is used as a survival
technique, highly related to the homeless team member’s access to the economic
resources controlled by mainstream society.
DTC Team
The second team in the social establishment is that of Downtown Tempe
Community Inc. (DTC), which is a non-profit organization that was created by local
23
business and property owners, in collaboration with the City of Tempe. The goal of the
DTC is to “increase the value” of downtown Tempe through public relations and
management services (DTC, 2000).
The Downtown Tempe Community has been an effective downtown management and services organization for the stakeholders of downtown Tempe since it was founded in 1993. Fundamentally, the DTC has accomplished many, if not most, of the objectives … downtown is a safer place, parking is easier and more available, the economy has grown substantially, the quality of public and private space has been dramatically improved, a new image has been crafted and the status of the downtown as Arizona’s best city center has been clearly established. (DTC, 2000)
The theme of a highly polished image that promotes business and safety for shoppers is
clearly evident. The DTC further identifies that its vision for the future of the Mill
Avenue area has six elements:
Organize the downtown community and advocate for its interests
Help make the downtown a safer place
Develop excellent and convenient access to the downtown
Be a leader in the growth of the downtown economy
Create and market an image for the downtown
Plan for the future of the downtown (DTC, 2000)
Again, we find that in this plan the DTC’s emphasis is on the themes of image, business,
and safety. This vision is in fact neglectful of the interests of the residents of the area,
homeless individuals, and social service agencies in favor of those of the business
community. The DTC further states that they are the team with the legitimate political
power within the social establishment of the downtown Tempe:
[The DTC is] officially recognized for this role by the City of Tempe and Arizona State University, our responsibility is to serve as a forum for the development of a consensus of ideas of the stakeholders and to advocate that consensus (DTC, 2000).
24
Here we find the issue of not only impression management of the team, but a team that by
influencing other groups and teams defines the context of the social establishment.
Additionally, the DTC’s committees are organized into three roles: planning of use and
allocation of space (thus cultivating image); business administration; and public safety.
As with other teams, the performance of these roles is maintained through dramaturgical
loyalty, discipline, and circumspection.
DTC Dramaturgical Loyalty, Discipline , & Circumspection
Dramaturgical loyalty when applied to Tempe’s homeless was used in reference to their
code of conduct. Similarly, the image of the downtown as a safe and prosperous center of
commercial activity acts as a code for DTC members. The DTC code , which establishes
the
way in which business is to be conducted in Tempe, may be found in the way in
which DTC members attempt to maintain the ideals of the business community, while
challenging the homeless population. One example of dramaturgical loyalty was
especially poignant. Following the occasion of a homeless street vendor donning a sign
protesting treatment by a local bar, the business manager of the establishment,
accompanied by four of his employees, in turn donned placards protesting the
homeless
street vendor. When asked about this tit for tat exchange, the manager explained that
they
were boycotting
the homeless vendor because he wanted free food for his referrals to
their business. The manager citing the DTC position explained, “That’s not how we do
business in the Downtown Tempe Community.”
The DTC has a vested interest in maintaining the “consensus” of the business
community. This is accomplished by enforcement of the code on DTC members. In one
example of discipline the DTC asked a merchant not to give food to the homeless
Formatted: Not Highlight
Formatted: Not Highlight
Deleted: forms
Deleted: a
Deleted: code
Deleted: of conduct for how
Deleted: is to be done
Deleted: . This code of how business is to be done
Deleted: In
Deleted: o
Deleted: f
Deleted: a
Deleted:
Deleted: against his establishment by one homeless street vendor a
Deleted: a local bar
Deleted: , and
Deleted: ed
Deleted: against a
Deleted: They stood on the corner of a busy intersection in front of the homeless street vendor with signs that read to boycott the homeless street vendor.
Deleted: Meanwhile
Deleted: e
Deleted: reason for
Deleted: was that
Deleted: Street
Deleted: wants
Deleted: a
Deleted: states
Comment: I’m still not sure I like this example here as it sounds like a complaint more than an example of code.
Bart: I re-wrote this does it make it clearer that this is the manager loyalty to the code (which includes not giving food to homeless)
OK… I re-wrote the re-write… see how this reads. I still try to portray Dennnis in a favorable light while illustrating the DTC code
Deleted: Here the manger cites the rhetoric of the DTC, and even mentions Downtown Tempe Community in his quote.
25
(Holthouse, 1998). The following is an example of pressure in the specific case of one
homeless individual.
According to Keaton Merrell, owner and general manager of the Paradise Bar & Grill on Mill Avenue, the DTC asked him to stop giving Skolnick free meals for his services as a food critic. (Riordan, 1999)
While dramaturgical loyalty may be found in the cultivated image of the downtown area,
and dramaturgical discipline in its enforcement, dramaturgical circumspection is evident
in the strategic planning to limit access of the homeless to the public spaces of downtown
Tempe.
‘The whole Centerpoint area is what's known as a super block,’ says Rod Keeling, executive director of Downtown Tempe Community, Inc. ‘It's a public space, but its not public property. It was turned over to the developer by the city.’ Which means Centerpoint can make and enforce a different set of rules. No panhandling, for one,… and no hanging around unless you buy something, which most of the kids don't. Instead, they play cat and mouse with DTC, Inc.'s white-jacketed TEAM security guards,… and seeing how long they can hold them before getting 86ed, only to come back a few hours later for another go. (Holthouse, 1998)
Several of the youth stated they have even been arrested for trespassing, after returning to
the Centerpoint property. They say that TEAM Security officers will often detain them
radioing Tempe Police Department Bicycle Patrol Unit to come and ticket them for
trespassing.
Likewise, circumspection is evident in the cultivated image of the downtown area
as a safe commercial district. The DTC is especially satisfied with its success in
promoting this image and “cleaning up the town”:
Fundamentally, the DTC has accomplished many, if not most, of the objectives … downtown is a safer place, parking is easier and more available, the economy has grown substantially, the quality of public and private space has been dramatically improved, a new image has been crafted and the status of the downtown as Arizona’s best city center has been clearly established. (DTC, 2000)
Comment: Is this different from the Riordan example? Bart: Also rewrote
Deleted: N.
Deleted: D.
26
Even though the DTC claims to represent the consensus of the public, they appear
to represent only that of the business community. The threat to impression management
for this team then is that their political agenda might be exposed in potential conflicts
between advocating for the community of Tempe and the business community
simultaneously. While land use statistics show the area of Tempe’s is 34.8% residential
and only 7.4% commercial (City of Tempe, 2001d), none of the DTC’s board members
are identified as representing residents. Instead they are identified as business leaders
(DTC, 2000), thus emphasizing the importance of area economics over citizenry.
City Team
The third key team in the social establishment is Tempe City Government. The
city team, much like the DTC, tends to neglect homelessness or treat it as an obstruction
to commerce and a secure community. The City’s approach has been to either send the
homeless elsewhere, criminalize their actions, or ignore them completely.
While the city has no shelter (Brzuzy, 2001), it had in its 2000-2001 budget
allocated funds in the excess of $212,500 for shelters in other cities in the Phoenix
metropolitan area (Tempe Community Council, 2000). At the same time, urban camping
and sleeping in public has been made illegal. The lack of shelters therefore makes it in
essence against the law for the homeless to live in Tempe.
The city has various boards and commissions on public issues, none of which
address the issues of homelessness/poverty. Yet, there is a Golf Committee and a Bicycle
Advisory Committee (City of Tempe 2001b). Remarkably, when searched for the terms
‘homeless’ and ‘social services’ the city code of the City of Tempe produces no results.
Comment: Newer stats online: Bart: can’t find on newer on their website… it is key to cite their website material
Yup.. didn’t find anything either…
Deleted: not
Comment: What is the task force then?
Bart : The task force is TTC which is a non-profit, a city agency
SJS: Maybe point it out… “While various community agencies have begun to focus on the growing need for homeless outreach and support, the city has yet to address this concern. However, the city has various….”
27
However, the terms ‘business’, ‘image’, ‘appearance’, and ‘safety’ produced multiple
results (City of Tempe 2001a):
Keyword Hits Business 31 image/appearance 11 safety 47
These three key concepts also appear in multiple places on the City of Tempe website
(City of Tempe 2001c) and parallel the themes of the DTC.
Surprisingly, the Tempe Community Council’s (a non-profit agency that handles
the city’s human services needs)
Homelessness Task Force Report (2000) also reflects
these themes and minimizes the prevalence of homelessness in the community. Statistics
presented on the size of the homeless population varied significantly in their report.
While they do cite a 1995 census estimate of 525 homeless in the City of Tempe, the
report prefers to utilize a figure of 200-300 (with a drop to 50 during summer months),
based on an estimate from the Tempe police department. Moreover, of the Short Term
Priorities identified by the Task Force only a few have been implemented:
1. Establish a Homeless Coordinator Position 2. Establish a Day resource center for the homeless population 3. Increase outreach and provide long term case management 4. Enhance community safety 5. Expand Tempe’s Crisis Assistance Response Effort 6. Enhance affordable transitional living and emergency shelter for
Tempe 7. Expand Community efforts to prevent homelessness
(Tempe Community Council, 2000)
According to the director of the Tempe Community Council, only three of these goals
have been implemented: community safety, efforts to prevent homelessness, and crisis
response team (personal conversation with Kate Hanley Director of TCC, January
Deleted: ,
Deleted: the
Inserted: , a non-profit agency
the
Deleted: ies
Inserted: ies human services funding
Deleted: funding
Deleted: ,
Inserted: ,
Deleted: Town
28
2002). Much like the DTC, the task force report highlights issues of safety as “many
resident of Tempe” are afraid of homeless people (Tempe Community Council, 2000).
Likewise there is an attempt to minimize the number of homeless in the community by
questioning the validity of the census data and favoring the use of the local police
statistics on the number of homeless. Again, the issue of safety and appearance are the
areas that are emphasized by this team.
City Dramaturgical Loyalty
Tempe’s mayor Neil Giuliano demonstrates a commitment to the City’s position
on homelessness:
"Tempe may be known as a fun-filled, hospitable environment for travelers, or slackers, or whatever they call themselves," he says. "But that can change."
The urban-camping and aggressive-panhandling ordinances were only a first step, says the mayor. "We're going to pass whatever laws we need to pass to make sure we have the tools we need to manage the homeless population." However, Giuliano says he has no idea what those laws might be yet, but one thing's for sure--he does not support the idea of a homeless shelter in Tempe.
"We got attacked last year for not having a shelter, and it's like, 'Well, yeah, we can open a three-car-garage-type shelter somewhere near downtown,' but why should we? We don't have any other services for these kids nearby, and we're not going to just warehouse people." (Holthouse 1998)
City Dramaturgical discipline
The City appointed Task Force on homelessness hired an ASU faculty member to
do an enumeration study, and cited a lot of faculty’s demographic data in their report
(Tempe Community Council, 2000). But failed to give her estimate of the number of
homeless, which estimated up to 500 homeless in Tempe and reported that in a 6-month
Comment: Again does this need to be revised as 1, 2, 3, 4, & 7 have been approached? Bart: 1- not done no coordinator, city stopped search due to budget; no day resource center exists for homeless poipualtion (only for under 22), and no case management provided by TTC… so no cahnges
Deleted: as “
Inserted:
Deleted: While
Deleted: ing
Deleted: as inflated
Deleted: justifying
Deleted: of the use
Comment: Need an example of appearance? Inserted sentence
Deleted: So
Deleted: a
29
period the Tempe Salvation Army served over 700 different homeless individuals
(Brzuzy, 2001). In her report to the Task Force, Stephanie Brzuzy (2001) highlights that
of 80% of the homeless interviewed thought that the City of Tempe should have a shelter.
This finding is cited in the Task Forces Report with and asterisk that reads:
During discussion of this preliminary report at the Homeless Task Force meeting on 9/21/00, ASU staff indicated that a number of those expressing a need for shelter in Tempe said, for various reasons, they would not wish to go into a shelter. (Tempe Community Council, 2000)
City Dramaturgical Circumspection
Appearance of the desire to address the issue of Homelessness is a portion of the
team performance. Assigning a taskforce and hiring a researcher to study then only using
data which maintains the city agenda is a perfect example of circumspection. The
presentation of the desire to change, while maintaining the status quo is consistent with
the dramaturgical performances of city governments (Futrell, 1999).
The problem with this performance maintenance is that public records and meeting
minutes might be utilized by the media in challenging the city’s status quo on homeless
issues. Several media articles have highlighted the role of the City in a negative
relationship to the homeless population (Amster, 1998; Holthouse, 1998; Riordan, 1999;
Zawicki, 2000). During Homeless awareness week, the university put together several
awareness activities and had panelist of homeless talk to students and faculty. Ironically
the police did a “round up” of homeless people on the first night of homeless awareness
week picking up 13 of them. Here the team of the homeless presented a threat to the
performance of the City.
30
Interaction of Teams
This analysis concludes with the interrelationship between the teams within this
social establishment. The first is the Image-Safety-Business are the core themes of Mill
Avenue as emphasized by the dominant teams; the City and DTC. These teams have a
unified agenda of creating a community image that is marketable and safe. The DTC is
the self-identified constructor of culture/ideology of the community. The City of Tempe
is the social structure in which power is enacted to maintain the safe marketable image of
Mill Avenue. The city establishes and enforces the laws, and the DTC creates a
“consensus” for the community by proposing and supporting those laws. These two
teams both regularly highlighted a mutual agenda of emphasizing Image/appearance,
Business, and Safety (DTC, 2000; City of Tempe, 2001a).
The presence of homeless creates a problem for this agenda. The homeless are a
threat to a marketable image and according to the city they make people feel unsafe
(Tempe Town Council, 2001). The city instituted several anti-homeless laws over the
past few years, which were proposed by Rod Keeling, the Director of DTC (Holthouse,
1998). These laws are a way of addressing the threat presented by the homeless team to
DTC’s and the City of Tempe’s mutual agenda of Image/appearance, Business, and
Safety. These laws are the aggressive panhandling law, the sitting on the sidewalk law,
and the urban camping law. These are all laws utilized to maintain the agenda of image,
business, and safety. Further social control of DTC is seen in the following quote.
Keeling says DTC has asked Mill Avenue restaurants not to give homeless kids throwaway food, and lobbied for the aggressive panhandling ordinance. Also, Keeling says, the management firm's four downtown ambassadors, who wear aqua sports shirts and ride bikes, have a directive to hand out cards to transients, titled "We'll give you a hand, Not a handout." The card reads:
31
The Downtown Community Council has zero tolerance for those who practice illegal behavior--including panhandling [which is a bit misleading; panhandling isn't illegal in Tempe, only rude panhandling]. The organizations on the back of this card can help you with food, clothes, shelter, counseling and work. This is our helping hand. Reach out and take it.
"We understand that most of these kids come from difficult circumstances," Keeling says. "We understand that. But if we're going to have successful civic places, and not just shopping malls, we have to deal with the issue of disorder in public space." (Holthouse, 1998)
Here we how they are interrelated when looking at their agenda and how they
impact the homeless street youth. Another example is the order of DTC to have City
employees to place fences on the Salvation Army’s property as a means of detouring the
homeless from camping on the Salvations Armies property. But this was done with out
the permission of the Salvation Army. The action was taken based on complaints by local
businesses about the homeless gathering on the Salvation Armies lawn.
“We have become, by default, a place where people can come when they don’t have any place to go…. We are trying to maintain our stance that it is not a crime to be homeless.” Major Sparks commanding officer of the Tempe Corp
“ If we’re going to have a homeless service center, we need on that is well managed. The Salvation Army has not managed the population, and to give them an environment where they are enabled to be there, I think, is wrong.” Rod Keeling, Director of Downtown Tempe Community Inc.
(Zawicki, 2000).
This highlights the enmeshed relationship of the DTC and the City of Tempe. Their
unified agenda of Image, Business, and Safety, is inconsistent with a visible homeless
population. Therefore measure must be taken to eliminate the homeless both visual,
discursively, and physically
Deleted: D.
32
In summary the relationship of the two of these teams is organized in the
maintenance of the stigma of the homeless population. These two teams identifying
homeless young people as criminals, as people looking for a handout looking for
handouts, as blemishes on the image of the downtown, as a population that makes Tempe
residents feel unsafe. So these two teams promote the criminalization of homeless young
people’s behaviors the “asking for handouts” (anti-panhandling); “creating a blemish on
Tempe” (loitering/urban camping)’; and “creating lack of safety” (sitting on
sidewalk/urban camping). Not to mention the trespassing violations on the privatized
public space of Centerpoint that where given to many of our interview subjects. These
types of laws regarding space are utilized to disenfranchise and remove homeless
populations (Mitchell, 1997). These laws are maintained through exclusionary citizenship
(Mitchell, 1997), and stigmatization of the homeless population (Takahashi, 1997). This
tension relationship creates a triangulation of power that marginalizes the homeless.
Therefore increasing the likelihood of criminalization, which produces strain in the
homeless individual. Hagan and McCarthy (1992) have identified that strain creates
further criminalization, thus increasing the cycle of deviances. Therefore the stigmatized
performance of this population becomes embraced and embedded in the identity of these
individual actors (Burke, 1991).
Mill Avenue’s homeless population provides society a unique glimpse into the
(word) tensions of the modern and/or postmodern self. One on hand and similar to the
total institution, the Tempe social establishment, as we have outlined it, has “official
expectations as to what he participant owes the establishment” (Goffman, 1961: 304).
Homelessness in Tempe’s social establishment is not to be heard of, spoken of, or seen.
Deleted: P.,
33
Perhaps, the situated activity system associated with the homeless dynamic on
Mill Avenue may be viewed as an amorphous total institution. A total institution
regulated not by walled in boundaries but rather the cluster of teams with in a social
establishments that surveil, define, and project the official definition of the homeless
stigmatized identity.
Yet, as Goffman notes with secondary adjustments against total institutions, “this
recalcitrance is not an incidental mechanism of defense but rather an essential constitute
of the self” (Goffman, 1961:319). The life trauma of many homeless individuals are
brutal, enough to wilt the most resilient. “The practice of reserving something of oneself
from the clutch of an institution is very visible in mental hospitals and prisons but can be
found in more benign and less totalistic institutions, too” (Goffman, 1961:319).
“Without something to belong to, we have no stable self. . . . Our sense of being a
person can come from being drawn into a wider social unit; our sense of selfhood can
arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull (Goffman,
1961:320). The Mill
Avenue homeless belong to and work as a team to paradoxically resist power and
authority, but also pull off and fully engage in their stigmatized identity. As noted, when
spanging many mobilize selves and present their stigmatized homeless identity by
employ their arts of impression management to strategically navigate their social
circumstances. This use of stigma in spanging has been noted in many ethnographic
studies of homelessness (Finley & Finley, 1999; Lankeau 1999a; 1999b; Williams, 1995).
The Mill Avenue homeless have a face, and do exist. Though excluding their existence
might be the purpose of the stigmatization placed upon them by the authorities (City of
Tempe & DTC) of the Social Establishment on Mill Avenue.
Deleted:
34
Conclusions and Recommendations
In summary the social establishment, much like a total institution, allows those
with power and access to structural social controls to construct and maintain a
stigmatization of the homeless. The expansion of Goffman’s concepts from Asylums and
Stigma into a mezzo level analysis of the unwalled institution or social establishment of a
downtown area, allows for new frame application of Goffman's methods of analysis. The
constructions of a stigmatized identity has become common practice in many local
communities through out the country. In the light of these exclusionary practices, a
potential solution to this issue of stigmatization is to create a community dialogue for the
purpose of consciousness raising activity, which humanizes the homeless. Several
researchers have highlighted the use of pro-social communication as a means to develop
relationship between homeless and their community (Chriss, 1995; De Swaan,et al.,
2000; English & English, 1999; Hocking, J. & Lawrence, 2000; and Rosenthal, R. 2000).
This research project utilized this method in the presentation of the finding in a
documentary format at a community meeting. The homeless, community members,
academics from the university, religious organizations, city officials, and homeless
service providers attended this community meeting. This public discourse engaged teams
(service providers, religious organizations, the university, and community residents)
previously exclude from the interaction. This has tremendous potential for shifting the
power dynamic embedded in the stigmatization of the homeless in any community. A
second possible solution to this stigmatization is the empowerment of the homeless,
through the use of participatory research. In this study the homeless were not the subjects
of investigate, but participants in the project. They shot video on the street, assisted in the
Deleted: , J.
Deleted: A.
Deleted: , L.
Deleted: N.
Deleted: S.,
35
editing process, identification of qualitative analysis, and as recorded music for the
documentary. This allowed for homeless street musicians to produce CD’s of their music,
homeless participants a chance to speaks about their lives and be heard. Additionally, the
use of visual methods created an opportunity to create an image of homelessness that is
contrary to the stigmatized construction developed ion the interaction of these teams.
This new image allows for a public deconstruction of the intense stigmatization present in
the Tempe Community.
36
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i The target population of this study were 18 to 24 year olds. ii As a result of ongoing pressure, Tempe has recently allowed a drop-in center with limited hours servicing only those homeless between the ages of 16 and 21. iii The U.S. Government, in the Stewart McKinney Act, defines a homeless individual or homeless person as:an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill), an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. iv An act of spray painting or otherwise marking a location or territory with a signature or symbol v Many homeless come to Tempe’s Mill Avenue (one of the few pedestrian thoroughfares in the Phoenix area) during the winter months. Often theses seasonal migrants will follow a pattern of movement from northern states to Arizona. vi “Mill Rats” (suburban kids who hang out Mill Avenue), House Punks (temporarily homeless or runaway kids who often return to their parents’ homes), former homeless, local musicians, etc. vii Spare + Change = Spange. In the eyes of many homeless this is distinct from panhandling as it seeks money that is surplus to the individual whom they are asking rather than asking for a handout.
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