Sharing and caring: housing in times of precarity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores two key themes that have enjoyed increasing attention in geography research in the last twenty years: geographies of care and experiences of precarity. It focuses on the perspectives of residents living in share houses during a strict COVID-19 lockdown in the city of Melbourne, Australia, drawing on 20 interviews conducted in mid-2020. In so doing, it contributes to understandings of care practices in ‘non-traditional’ households, providing a glimpse into the spectrum of care-full to care-less relations enacted in households responding to deep uncertainty and shifting connections to home brought on by a global pandemic. Within the day-to-day actions of occupants we highlight the networks of small acts of care-giving and resource sharing. We illuminate the spatial, emotional and relational micro-geographies of share houses to identify how precarity is negotiated amongst co-residents and draw attention to the implications of care-less policies and real estate practices. Our research answers the call for a greater emphasis on embodied home-making practices among group households by paying attention to the contingent relationships of care that they house.