THE CITY OF HOMELESS

"A city is the most heartless and artificial place. The ultimate solution is to desert the city itself. We can solve the problems of cities, by leaving them." - Henry Ford, 1922

Based on the meat transportation system of a slaughterhouse in Chicago Henry Ford introduced a revolutionary mass production system for the car. His mass production system, also called Fordism, was foundational to the analysis and change of cities since 1920s. Ford helped whites and blacks to leave the cities for their residences respectively with the help his cars. This is just the beginning of racial discrimination through residential separation according to races, skilfully interlocking with the residence policy which fostered separating residences according to races. In this way, the nature of residence, that is the nature of 'home' disappeared gradually. Bachelard noted that the concept of 'home' was lost in today's cities, with only the meaning of 'the machine' where people reside being left. 'Home' is not just a simple building, but the first world itself where we live and reside.

The space which protects us from the external environment, the place where we share love and faith among family members, and get together for enjoyment, the place which provides us with spiritual comfort, and the place our offsprings are to be born in for carrying on family lines and seniors can live comfortable lives for the rest of their days are the dictionary definitions of 'home'. According to these definitions, as Heidegger said, people today are, so to speak, 'homeless', wandering aimlessly from place to place, 'losing' rootedness. 'Homeless' means being without homes. Homeless doesn't refer to the streeters as we usually know it, but it is an adjective pointing to the situation where one is without a home. But considering that the only alternative that people who lost their (physical) homes have might be to live on the streets, homeless can be synonymous with streeters. According to the standards of UN, homeless refers to people without homes, people who sleep outdoors or put up at inns, people who have and live in the homes which do not come up to the standards of UN, and people whose stable right of residence, job, education, and health care are not met to their desired level. Therefore even people with their homes can be homeless.