From the Alleys to City Hall

Abstract

From September 2013 to April 2014, an independent collection of homeless men and women planted their own tent city, Whoville in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Over these 8 months, they fought with the city for more housing for Eugene’s growing homeless population, initiating a citywide dialogue on the marginalization of the homeless. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the homeless tenants of the Whoville community used participatory communication to achieve their long-term goals in sustaining a working camp and also carrying on with their plans after the government intervened. Drawing on seven interviews with camp tenants, highly involved volunteers, board members, and articles from the Eugene Register Guard, I examine the dynamic of participatory communication in sustaining this movement. What components of participatory communication helped these activists form a community and then mobilize the surrounding community? I argue that two key strategies, applicable to other situations of homeless resistance, emerge from the themes found in these interviews: (a) Whoville’s strategy to unite as a physical community, forming a public, collective identity in the greater Eugene community and (b) invoking a collective vision for better housing which mobilized both Whoville and citizens at large to rally to this vision.