Vulnerabilities and survival strategies of homeless women

Abstract

Homelessness is, for many, one of the crudest expressions of precariousness, poverty, and vulnerability. This paper presents an approach to homeless women's experiences and survival strategies based on the conceptual tools provided by the approach of the "assets-vulnerability-opportunities structure" (AVEO) approach, in order to generate a comprehensive reading of this population' s specificities. To this end, we contrast the literature and a semi-structured interview series with homeless women in the city of Ibagué, Colombia. We identify some of the vulnerability and gender violence factors, as well as to briefly describe three survival strategies in which the use of different assets is advocated to meet basic daily needs, such as the use of the existing institutional offer, the use of social and affective interactions and relationships as a way of satisfying immediate vital demands, and the use of the body as an asset. It is concluded that there is practical rationality that guides the ways of life on the street, from which women manage to survive within the framework of their known vulnerabilities. Ultimately, it is necessary to identify the specific vulnerability factors of each territorial context to propose interventions that have an impact on expanding and strengthening the structure of opportunities, thus making it possible to think of interventions that do not fall back on welfare and the denial of the actors' agency. It also opens the discussion about the approach’s adequacy to analyze the symbolic elements’ role, such as the body.