Locked out: Women’s Housing Insecurity in a Hostile Social Environment Restricted; Files Only
Lewis, Patricia (Summer 2022)
Abstract
The safety and peace of mind afforded with stable housing is out of reach for many Americans, particularly low-income renter households. Almost half of all renters in the United States are considered housing cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their incomes on housing. Housing insecurity refers to various housing challenges that range in severity from having trouble paying rent, moving frequently, or doubling-up to more severe hardships like eviction or homelessness. Women, particularly women of color, head the majority of housing-insecure households in the U.S. However, the role intersectional gender inequity plays in women’s ability to secure and maintain safe and affordable housing is understudied and undertheorized. In this three-paper dissertation, I apply quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the role of a hostile social environment in women’s housing experiences, accounting for the intersecting impact of gendered and racialized violence at the state level, community level, and within the intimate household. First, drawing on an extensive review of sociological literature on gender, race, and housing, I propose a socio-ecological framework to study the feminization of housing insecurity in America’s racial caste system. Second, I draw on longitudinal data on a population of at-risk urban-dwelling mothers in the U.S. (n= 4,482) to investigate the potential individual-level pathways between IPV and housing insecurity and account for the way in which socio-political barriers in the community might condition the relationship. Finally, I use qualitative in-depth interview data with housing insecure women in Connecticut (n=16) to explore how violence confines women to inadequate housing in racially segregated neighborhoods. The results of these analyses demonstrate how marginalized urban-dwelling women are subjected to hostile social environments that deepen their vulnerabilities to housing insecurity. Specifically, violence from the state, community, and intimate partners intertwine to lock women in a hostile social environment in which their personal freedom is revoked and they are subject to abuse and deprivation. The dissertation concludes with implications for future research and public policy interventions to advance gender and racial equity in housing.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Literature Review 1
Intimate Partner Violence and Housing Insecurity 3
Community Violence and Housing Insecurity 4
Structural Violence and Housing Insecurity 5
Research Objectives and Questions 6
Why Intersectionality as a Framework? 6
Structure of the Dissertation 7
Chapter 2: Locked out: An intersectional gender analysis of residential attainment and the feminization of housing insecurity among low-income women in the U.S. 9
Introduction 9
Theoretical Framework: Gender, Intersectionality, and Social Inequality in Housing 12
Figure 1: The Feminization of Housing Insecurity in America’s Racial Caste System: A Multi-level Integrative Framework 15
The Feminization of Housing Insecurity within the American Racial Caste System 15
Housing-insecure by design: State sanctioning of racialized gender inequality 16
Racialized gender dynamics in landlord/tenant relations: Home ownership and locations of power 21
The role of intimate partner violence: Interactional gender inequality in a punitive social environment 24
Gendered strategies when you can’t pay rent: Constrained agency in response to housing insecurity 27
Conclusions 31
Chapter 3: Intimate Partner Violence and Housing Insecurity among Urban Mothers: The Role of a Hostile Social Environment 33
Introduction 33
Theoretical Background 34
Structural Barriers to Safe Housing 38
Summary and Hypotheses 40
Figure 2: Relationship Between IPV and housing Insecurity 41
Data and Methods 41
Measures 43
Analysis 46
Results 47
Fig. 3: Prevalence of Housing Insecurity and Intimate Partner Violence Across Time (N=4,482) 48
Fig 4: Prevalence of Housing Insecurity by Contemporaneous Physically Violent or Controlling Relationship Across Time 49
Table 1: Fixed effects logit models for risk of housing insecurity across time among mothers in Fragile Families Study (N=4,482) 51
Table 2: Fixed effects logit models examining the role of physical IPV in the risk of housing insecurity across time among mothers in Fragile Families Study (N=4,482) 52
Table 3: Fixed effects logit models examining the role of controlling IPV for risk of housing insecurity across time among mothers in Fragile Families Study (N=4,482) 52
Discussion 53
Chapter 4: “Either you get the safety or you get the affordable”: Constrained by violence in Connecticut's segregated cities 57
Introduction 57
Theory: Housing Insecurity in a Matrix of Violence 58
State Violence: Divestment from social welfare and neoliberal housing policies 61
Community Violence 63
Intimate Household Violence 64
Constrained Agency and Survival Strategies in the Face of Intersecting Violence 65
Study Context: Residential Segregation and Housing Insecurity in Connecticut 66
Study Purpose 68
Methods 69
Table 4: In-depth Interview Participant Demographics (N=16) 72
Analysis 72
Results 73
Figure 5: A Socio-ecological Framework of Violence and Housing Insecurity 75
State: Structural Barriers to Safe and Affordable Housing 76
Community: Feeling unsafe in the neighborhood and building 80
Intimate Households: Violence and Abandonment 83
Discussion 88
Chapter 5: Conclusion 94
Seeking Shelter in a Hostile Social Environment 94
Strengths and Limitations 96
Implications 97
References 99
Appendix I: Data Sharing and Access Agreements 122
Appendix II: Chapter 3 Supplementary Tables 123
Table A2.1: Factor Loadings for Concentrated Disadvantage 123
Table A2.2: Baseline Sample Characteristics and Descriptive Statistics of analysis variables (N=4,482) 123
Table A2.3: Random-effects logit models for risk of housing insecurity across time among mothers in Fragile Families Study (N=4,482) 124
Appendix III: Qualitative In-Depth Interview Guide 126
About this Dissertation
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