Poverty Coping Strategies and Strategies of Coping with the Poverty Threat in the Context of Homelessness

EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Coping tactics with Poverty and Poverty Threat
in the Context of Homelessness in the Czech
Republic and in the City of Ostrava
Eliška Lindovská, Faculty of Social Studies,
University of Ostrava
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Structure:
 Numbers of homeless people in the Czech Republic.
 Some of the findings of a survey report about
“Commercial Hostels” in the Ostrava city.
 Strategies of coping with poverty and poverty threat and
preliminary results of the research Poverty and poverty
threat coping tactics of families with minors in the city of
Ostrava.
 Chosen course of action in the field of homelessness in
the Czech Republic.

Homelessness in numbers
 No consistent data
 1996 – 9 000 (estimation by 169 municipalities); 4 500
(estimation by 18 hostels) (Horáková, 1997)
 2004 – 3 096 (in Prague) (Hradecký, 2005)
 2011 - 11 496 - Czech Republic (Housing and
Population census 2011, www.scitani.cz)
 Indicator: “People housed in emergency and mobile
objects” - 85 647 (counted as being housed)
 Taken ETHOS into account: 85 647 + 11 496 = 97 143
homeless people in the Czech Republic (0,92% of Czech
population)

Housing situation with emphasis
on commercial hostels
 No Housing First model operating in the country
 Commercial hostels considered as long term solution of
housing loss
 Survey report drawing on floating support workers
experiences – Ostrava (Jedináková, Pischová, 2013) –
unique survey – findings:
 31 commercial hostels in Ostrava with over 7 000beds
available
 Families stay long term – more than 5 years X not
suitable for long term occupancy

 4 main issues:
 Technical parametres for long term use – absent, some
hostels not even suitable for short term occupancy.
Overcrowded space, shared facilities (showers, toilets,
kitchen)
 Short term contracts with no occupant´s rights
 High costs, sometimes abused by landlords
 Restricted access for support workers, restricted access
for other visitors

 Commercial hostels as creator of new phenomenon –
families unable to cope in independent living, feelings of
isolation and loneliness, missing „housing culture“
(„hostel children“)
 Associations with Goffman´s „total institutions“ – 4 ways
of coping:
 „resignation“
 „regression“
 „rebellion“
 „colonization“

Coping tactics with poverty and
poverty threats by families with
minors
 Quantitative study in Ostrava (Chytil, Gojová, A., Gojová,
V., Lindovská, Nedomová, Špiláčková, Tichá,
Vondroušová, 2013)
 Poor families and families threatened with poverty
contacted through NGO´s and social work departments
 Criterion – 1 child under 15 yeards old, various forms of
housing situation
 Research sample: 262 families from the Ostrava city

 Coping tactics drawn from literature: Budowski,
Tillmann, Keim, Amacker (2010); Duvoux; Paugam;
Gaulejac, Léonetti; Dubet (in Keller, 2013a); van der
Land, Doff (2010); Sirovátka (2000); Leisering, Leibfried
(1999); Wadswarth (2012).
 Combined with phases of social disqualification
(Paugam, 1991)
 Elaborated into questionnaire, structured interviews
conducted.

 Preliminary results:
 Three categories:
 • Poor families (21%)
 • Families threatened with poverty (76%)
 • Families out of poverty (3%)
 The main criterion:
 Poor families – under living minimum line
 Families threatened with poverty – living minimum line
and above + precarious employment or unemployment
of at least one adult household member or small savings
or problems with debts, mortgage payments.

 Coping tactics:
 48% (126) families use coping tactics; 52% (136) of
families were not selected as using any specific coping
tactics.
 Out of 126 families – most common coping tactics are:
 “situation instrumentalization” (22,22%),
 “discrediting of others” (21,42%)
 “passive adaptation” (17,46%).

 Not possible to generalize, but interesting links noticed:
 “Resignation” and “Colonization” reflected by floating
support workers resonate with “Passive adaptation” and
“Situation instrumentalization” identified by the empirical
research.
 Implications: families in Ostrava living in poor conditions
tending to passively adapt to its situation? Make the
situation comfortable as possible? Distinguishing
themselves as „better sort“? Can these be explained by
„external locus of control“?
 Who is an actor of change?

 Power (less) Social Work? (Gojová, 2012) – focus
groups with social work departments´ officers in Moravia
– Silasia county – results:
 No initiation of grassroot change, solutions and activities
only on local level, within established framework
 Who is an actor of change?

Course of action in the field of
homelessness in the Czech
Republic
 Platform for Social Housing - proactively seeking solution
of legal definition of social housing, trying to establish
mutual dialogue between NGO sector and the
government (Ministry of Local Affairs and Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs), includes more than 40
NGO´s.
 Night Out – socially innovative project (awarded by
Sozial Marie price for social innovation – 2013) run in
cooperation of Faculty of Social Studies, Association of
Shelters in the Czech Republic and homeless people
themselves.

 Aim: to raise and change general awareness about
homelessness in an experiential way (sleep out).
 Theatre of the Oppresed – the most vulnerable not being
heard, empowerment.
 Strategical material: Conception of working with
homeless people in the Czech Republic up to 2020
(Hradecký, Plachý, Prudký, Růžička, Slavíček, Šmídová,
Šos, Riadová) – suggests to pilot Housing First

Resources:
 EDGAR B., MEERT H, Fourth Review of Statistics on Homelessness in
Europe. The ETHOS Definition of Homelessness, Brussels: FEANTSA,
2005.
 GOJOVÁ, A. Bez(mocná) sociální práce? Habilitační práce, FSS OU, 2012.
 HRADECKÝ I., PLACHÝ A., PRUDKÝ L., RŮŽIČKA J., SLAVÍČEK A.,
ŠMÍDOVÁ M., ŠOS L., RIADOVÁ B., Souhrnný materiál pro tvorbu
Koncepce práce s bezdomovci v ČR na období do roku 2020, Praha, 2012.
Dostupné na WWW: http://www.esfcr.cz/file/8471/[on-line] [1. 4. 2013]
 HORÁKOVÁ M., Současné podoby bezdomovství v České republice: pilotní
sonda. Praha: Výzkumný ústav práce a sociálních věcí, 1997.
 Housing and Population Census 2011, Český statistický úřad. Dostupné na
WWW:
http://www.scitani.cz/csu/2012edicniplan.nsf/t/D70024DBB2/$File/ZVCR030
.pdf [on-line] [08. 04. 2013]
 HRADECKÝ I., Profily bezdomovství v České republice: proč spí lidé venku
a kdo jsou ti lidé. Praha: Ilja Hradecký, 2005.

 CHYTIL, O., GOJOVÁ, A., GOJOVÁ, V., LINDOVSKÁ, E., NEDOMOVÁ, E.,
ŠPILÁČKOVÁ, M., TICHÁ, I., VONDROUŠOVÁ, K. Dílčí výzkumná zpráva
„Způsoby zvládání chudoby a ohrožení chudobou rodinami s nezletilými
dětmi", Rozšíření a rozvoj vědeckovýzkumného týmu Ostravské univerzity,
Fakulty sociálních studií, číslo projektu: CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0080, 2013.
(nepublikovaný text)
 JEDINÁKOVÁ, H., PISCHOVÁ, J. Zpráva o ubytovnách na Ostravsku aneb
Jsou ubytovny opravdu vhodným řešením pro bydlení rodin s dětmi a lidí
bez domova? Ostrava: Občanské sdružení Vzájemné soužití Terénní
programy Práce s oběťmi trestné činnosti – Pomocná ruka, 2013. Dostupné
na WWW: http://www.vzajemnesouziti.estranky.cz/clanky/aktuality/zprava-
o-ubytovnach-na-ostravsku.html [on-line] [31. 07. 2013]
 www.nocvenku.cz
 www.socialnibydleni.org

Thank you for your
attention!
 Email: Eliska.lindovska@osu.cz

Poverty Coping Strategies and Strategies of Coping with the Poverty Threat in the Context of Homelessness

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