Homelessness and Sofa-Surfing: Everyday Belonging, Mobilities, Identities and Morals in Hidden Spaces of Welfare

Abstract

This paper advances existing work on the geographies of homelessness by considering the phenomenon of sofa-surfing—defined as the practice of living in a host's home, without a right to reside, in the absence of more permanent accommodation—as a distinctive, and until recently somewhat hidden, form of homelessness. Examining sofa-surfing is important as it recognises the varied and intersecting spatial, temporal and mobility characteristics of vulnerable populations, often thought to be living at the margins of homelessness. Across the globe, the significant increase in sofa-surfing since the 2010s, coupled with the unique, and frequently hidden, movements between ‘host’ homes, and the interrelationships that exist between sofa-surfers and hosts, makes sofa-surfing an essential lens through which to interpret the diverse geographies of 21st Century homelessness. To achieve this, we draw together work from a range of global contexts that examine the roots of stigmatised homeless identities and punitive public policies, alongside studies of homeless mobilities and performative homeless identities, to help understand the complex precarities associated with feelings of dislocation and (not) belonging. Investigating patterns of sofa-surfing mobilities alongside sofa-surfers’ fluid performative identities matters, and this paper provides new ways of understanding how such unique interactions impact sofa-surfers’ felt capacities to belong within and between sofa-surfing spaces.