Date of Award

May 2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Geography

First Advisor

Anne Bonds

Keywords

feminist care ethics, feminist geography, LGBTQ+ youth homelessness, queer geographies, urban geography, youth homelessness

Abstract

LGBTQ+ youth homeless is a pressing topic for geographic study, as LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented in youth homeless populations (Cunningham et al. 2014; Morton et al 2018). The conditions that create urban youth homelessness are social, material, and spatial. This research aims to examine service providers’ perspective of the conditions of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in Milwaukee. Specifically, I examine how service providers in the city understand LGBTQ+ youth homelessness, where service providers identify barriers and gaps in the city for LGBTQ+ homeless youth, and ways service providers challenge and/or reproduce LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in their care work. Drawing on feminist and queer geographic literature, and informed by feminist care ethics, I conduct qualitative research with participants from four non-profit organizations across Milwaukee. From interviews with these service providers, I employ a thematic analysis of the conditions of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in the city. In this thesis, I argue that service providers understand LGBTQ+ youth homelessness as informed by urban conditions that are reproduced through hierarchies of race, class, gender, sexuality, through the built environment, and through neoliberal logics of care.

Included in

Geography Commons

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