Housing, Homelessness, and Mental Health: Mapping an Agenda for Geographical Inquiry

This paper proposes that work by geographers on the relationships between housing, homelessness, and mental health should take into account recent literature concerning the nature of home in contemporary society. Towards this end, we distinguish between literal, incipient, and metaphorical homelessness. We argue that this distinction raises new research questions concerning the experience of households “on the edge of homelessness” and others who are well-housed but, for various reasons, are not “at home” in their present circumstances.