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Tent City: Patterns of Informality and the Partitioning of Sacramento

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  • Cory Parker

Abstract

Unsanctioned tent cities are increasing in number in cities throughout the western United States. Scholars explain the phenomenon as homeless people asserting their ‘right to the city’ or as ‘managed marginality’. These explanations capture much of the socio‐political relationship between local government and homeless populations, but do not explain the long‐term persistence of tent cities and the fluctuating nature of their visibility. A spatial history of informal encampments in Sacramento at three key moments—the founding of the city, the Great Depression and the Great Recession—reveals a long‐term ebb and flow of tent cities occupying close‐to‐the‐center, urban vacancies. Urban vacancies arise from the partitioning of the city into specific purposes, places and people, a taken‐for‐granted perception of how cities should be. The visibility of tent cities disrupts this aesthetic notion of stability and growth as homeless people use the tent to protest their isolation and exclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Cory Parker, 2020. "Tent City: Patterns of Informality and the Partitioning of Sacramento," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 329-348, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:44:y:2020:i:2:p:329-348
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12846
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Colin McFarlane, 2012. "Rethinking Informality: Politics, Crisis, and the City," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 89-108.
    2. Chris Herring & Manuel Lutz, 2015. "The roots and implications of the USA's homeless tent cities," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(5), pages 689-701, October.
    3. Noah J. Durst & Jake Wegmann, 2017. "Informal Housing in the United States," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 282-297, March.
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