The Corporate Campaign against Homelessness: Class Power and Urban Governance in Neoliberal Atlanta, 1973-1988

Abstract

This article deals with the efforts of Atlanta's business community to remove homeless people from the downtown area during the 1970s and 1980s. The corporate sector pursued a two-pronged strategy in rolling out this removal project. First, it attempted to define homelessness as a public safety problem requiring a beefed-up police presence in the central city. Second, it attempted to leverage social services in such a way as to physically displace homeless people from the downtown area. The corporate campaign against homelessness culminated in the Central Area II Study of 1986-1988, a blueprint for downtown revitalization that targeted homeless people for removal. The corporate campaign against homelessness illuminates the "roll out phase" of neo-liberalism when the "right hand" and "left hand" of the state underwent a significant reconfiguration.