In this article, the author examines the cultural production of homelessness in the United States, with particular concern for the intimate connection between discursive practices and material conditions. Drawing from poststructural discourse analysis, the author traces the discursive development of homelessness and homeless people between 1982 and 1996 in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The author explores changes in discursive practices and demonstrates how these changes produce, transform, and stabilize public knowledge about people who cannot afford housing. In conjunction, the author deconstructs current discursive practices in newspapers and examines the relationship of these practices to local political responses to homelessness. The author then discusses how discursive practices regarding poverty create particular problems, deliberations, and interventions while precluding others. Finally, the author considers the implications of the findings for class politics and social change.
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