Making a living on the streets: Survival strategies and collective action in Montevideo

Abstract

The article focuses on the ways of making a living among a group of homeless people in Montevideo. Some of these individuals have organized the collective Ni todo está perdido (NITEP) —identifying as “street people”— resignifying the stigmatized locus of living on the streets. In addition to actions aimed at improving symbolic aspects, NITEP has undertaken political action for housing access, demanded that the State improve homeless shelters, and created initiatives for the economic sustenance of its members. Based on a long-term ethnographic research process, we propose to relate and understand these ways of making a living across different dimensions: (a) moral and self-esteem; (b) forms of solidarity both among people living on the streets and with other social collectives, merchants, and neighbors; and (c) the role of human rights, public policies, and state action. Furthermore, we take into account the temporality in which these individuals live, the time dedicated to “making a living”, the waiting times to obtain services from public policies, and the times marked by expulsions from different locations, as well as the conflicts to secure spaces —whether in street markets, to watch cars, or to recycle discarded objects. Finally, we discuss the relationships between individual ways of making a living, collectively organized solidarity, and public policies.