Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

As women continue in such high proportion to be the custodial parents when relationships break down, this experience is then exacerbated by the very significant income disparities between lone mother-led and lone father-led families. The housing and geographic circumstances of these families then adds the triple threat of high-risk spaces and places to the already life-shaping circumstances of being poor and a single mother. Using qualitative interview data from a longitudinal study of Canadian mothers, this paper explores the housing and neighborhood experiences of 42 lone mother-led families in Toronto. Findings include issues of safety and violence, and a strong association between neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and a lack of commercial resources including grocery and drug stores. Mothers report being trapped - economically, socially and geographically - leading them to report feeling that their very status as citizens has been denied. These experiences are theorized using Amartya Sen’s work on social exclusion, given respondents feelings of being unworthy to be in the public realm.