Restricted definitions of public space, urban expulsion and invisibility of homeless people in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the article analyzes the expulsive dynamics of public space aimed at homeless people in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. As a hypothesis, it is argued that the characterization of public policies for these populations must include government measures around public space which, for some time now at present, promote the invisibilization of the street phenomenon. We are referring to the irruption of the security forces against the camps for homeless people; to the proliferation ofa hostile architecture; to neighborhood organizations aimed at eradicating homeless from “their neighborhoods”; etc. The restricted perspectives of public space justify their measures by appealing to the need to guarantee the “circulation” of “citizens” and to preserve the “landscape.” These policies predetermine legitimate presences and users in public space, forcing the constant displacement of homeless.