Dreams of Mobility in the American West: Transients, Anti- Homeless Campaigns, & Shelter Services in Boulder, Colorado Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Andrew Lyness, M.A. Graduate Program in Comparative Studies The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Leo Coleman, Advisor Barry Shank Theresa Delgadillo Copyright by Andrew Lyness 2014 Abstract For people living homeless in America, even an unsheltered existence in the urban spaces most of us call “public” is becoming untenable. Thinly veiled anti-homelessness legislation is now standard urban policy across much of the United States. One clear marker of this new urbanism is that vulnerable and unsheltered people are increasingly being treated as moveable policy objects and pushed even further toward the margins of our communities. Whilst the political-economic roots of this trend are in waning localism and neoliberal polices that defined “clean up the streets” initiatives since the 1980s, the cultural roots of such governance in fact go back much further through complex historical representations of masculinity, work, race, and mobility that have continuously haunted discourses of American homelessness since the nineteenth century. A common perception in the United States is that to be homeless is to be inherently mobile. This reflects a cultural belief across the political spectrum that homeless people are attracted to places with lenient civic attitudes, good social services, or even nice weather. This is especially true in the American West where rich frontier myths link notions of homelessness with positively valued ideas of heroism, resilience, rugged masculinity, and wilderness survival. Today even formerly tolerant liberal municipalities are rationalizing aggressive anti-homelessness campaigns by connecting homelessness with mobility. ii In Boulder, Colorado, like many similarly sized towns in the west, there is a real population of highly visible young travelers whose presence is ubiquitous downtown during the spring and summer. In recent years these seasonal groups have become the topic of much debate in Boulder as the city struggles to reconcile its reputation as one of the nation’s most socially progressive and tolerant communities, with a public and political call to clamp down on all visible homelessness. Therefore, in order to examine the effects these mobile groups were having on attitudes towards the year-round local homeless population, I conducted seven months of fieldwork in the city during 2012 and 2013. For the purpose of this qualitative study I identified three distinct local populations, and across winter, spring and summer I worked with two of them: 1) ‘Travelling kids’ 2) ‘Homeless’ 3) Marginalized. In order to better understand the location and bureaucratic categorization of these populations, I first spent the winter volunteering in a Boulder shelter, interviewed the directors, and employed participant observation from first-hand involvement in regional “Point-in-Time” homeless counts. Subsequently I tracked changes in these populations using ethnographic data gathered on the streets of Boulder during the summer of 2013. This case study links a wider urban policy analysis with considerations of historical and contemporary representations of homelessness in the western United States. Through these connections we may better understand prevailing social attitudes towards unsheltered populations, how representations of homelessness shape urban governance, as well as the consequences of current homelessness policies on the actual people living precarious and unsheltered lives on our nation’s streets. iii Dedication For my grandparents: Tom, Sophie, Rusty, & Jean Biixounou (1995 – 2013) iv Acknowledgments The seeds of my fascination with the American West were sown in Butte, Montana, 1999, and I am forever thankful for my extended “American family,” the Bones & the DeBordes of Big Sky Country, for the brave move of taking a teenage British exchange student into their homes for a whole year. These big-hearted people introduced me to the landscapes and cultures at the core of this work. The roots of this dissertation sprouted a few years later, around Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2004, and grew into an undergraduate thesis at the University of East Anglia. For those early academic years and their continued mentorship I am grateful to Dr. Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Dr. Rebecca Tillett who did so much to encourage my work and include me in their professional networks. From this time and the years since I’m grateful for many times, appropriately scholarly or appropriately otherwise, spent with Matthew Paul Bailey, Chelsea Armstrong, Worthing & Cameron, Richard Pook, Gareth J. Clayton, Matt Kiszka, Jonny Pelham, Xochitl Campos, Gabbi Campos, Gloria Castillo, Ryan Bone, Sophie King, Rami Mallis, Simon Elliot, Harriet Pile, Morgan Duffy, Eoin McHugh, Liam Sloan, Jim Kershaw, Helen Pidd and many others. I steered away from academia for a year before a looming career as a news reporter sent me careening back toward it. This was only made possible by a post-graduate studentship award from the British Association of American v Studies, an organization at various points instrumental in this twisting academic trajectory. BAAS gave me the opportunity to join the American Studies program at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, a special department and community. At UW I am hugely grateful to my advisor and folklorist John Dorst, who nurtured the first stages of this project, as well as to Eric Sandeen, Ulrich Adelt, & Frieda Knobloch, all of whom in their unique ways influenced me as a scholar and as a person. From this time my fondest memories are of times spent with Emily Madden, Matt Kline, Matt Stewart, Hilery Lindmier, Meghan Rose, Emilene Ostlind, Alyssa Wechsler, Joe Howdyshell, Joshua King, Sandra King-Savic, Joshua Kollaja, and so many others who took me out into the mountains and prairies around “Laradise”. The four summers I spent with the students and staff of Wyoming’s Upward Bound high school summer programs taught me more about the important things in education and life than all the years I’ve spent in universities. The heavy lifting of this dissertation, however, happened in the times I wasn’t in the American West and gained some perspective on it. Of the Ohio people, born and naturalized, who helped me with this in multiple ways, I’m happy to know Brett Zehener, Lee Wiles, Oded Nir, Andrew Culp, RaShelle Peck, Damon Berry, Zach Henkel, Justine Law, Nick Crane, Zoe Pearson, David S. Lewis, Jenny & Walker Pfost, Trent Saksa, Erica Di Claudio, Nate Salyers, and very many other folk in and around Columbus who’ve made my time here fun and engaging. My first advisor at the Ohio State University, and the person who took a real interest in my project and brought me here, was Ruby Tapia. Now at the University of Michigan, Professor Tapia was a huge vi influence on my intellectual and professional development, and I will always look to her for inspiration as a teacher and a thinker. There is nobody this project owes more to than my current advisor Professor Leo Coleman. Over a number of years, Leo has given so much of his time, energy, intellect, and personality to the sculpting of these questions, that without his particular brand of careful guidance I’m not sure what this dissertation would look like. I consider Leo’s influence on this work, as well as on my broader understanding of scholarly questions in the humanities and social sciences, to be invaluable. The expertise and energy of my committee members, Professor Barry Shank & Professor Theresa Delgadillo, has also given much to this project and I owe them many thanks. In Comparative Studies, classes with Hugh Urban, Maurice Stevens, and Kwaku Korang, taught me much about critical thinking. Likewise, Eugene Holland, Philip Armstrong, Nina Berman, Dan Reff, Marge Lynd, Shu-Wen Tsai, and Elizabeth Marsch, have looked after me and, in various ways, kept me welcome, paid, and enrolled at OSU. Fieldwork for this project took place in Colorado during winter and spring, made possible by an award from the Schools Competition Act Settlement Trust. For this indirect support, as well as numerous other financial contributions, I must acknowledge Shrewsbury School for their continued enthusiasm for my education. During fieldwork I lived in north Boulder and I owe a great deal of thanks to my good friends Ben and Dorinda Savage, along with ‘the fellas,’ for sharing their lovely home with me. This study simply couldn’t have happened without their kindness and generosity. I also owe Matt Kiszka & Justin Kushik for the regular use of their couch when winter nights made the walk up Broadway unappealing: You’re the best mates, hiking and skiing partners I vii could ask for. Thanks also to Joe, Z, Kristi, Daisy, Kevin, Brooke, Angela, Krista, James, Brittany, Ryan, Ed, Paddy, and the many other people who kept me outdoors and healthy in Colorado while working on this project. Finally in Boulder, this study would not have been possible without the residents & staff of the shelter for letting me work alongside them, and also the numerous travellers, young people, and members of the wider community — transient and otherwise — who gave so freely of their stories for this ethnography. During the lengthy writing process my special thanks are reserved for Ollie Wigmore & Ana Kim for their friendship, late night conversations, a much needed spring getaway, and the use of their home at the times I most needed it! Also thank you to the extended Keene family in British Columbia for their support and kindness in sharing their vacation and summer cabin with me as a special and peaceful place to finish chapters. To my mum and dad, thank you for all your support, love, and encouragement in the long decades of my formal education since that ominous phone call from Church Stretton Methodist playschool circa 1986.