LIVING ON THE STREET - SOCIAL-ORGANIZATION AND GENDER RELATIONS OF AUSTRALIAN STREET KIDS

The resurgence and visibility of homelessness since the 1980s have bec ome significant social and political issues, widely debated in academi c circles and in the popular press. The composition of the homeless po pulation has changed markedly in this period, and now includes more wo men and children, and more of the deinstitutionalised mentally ill. Th e lives of street kids in the city of Newcastle, Australia show patter ns of structured behaviour and territorial and social organisation. Th ey have a distinctive group identity and moral order. Their subculture is complex with strains of nonpatriarchal and patriarchal relations c ombined with little tolerance of forms of difference. The moral code o f the youth subculture may be a form of resistance to their histories of abuse but is also conservative in reproducing aspects of the cultur e that they resist. The social networks generated on the street provid e a self-maintaining force which contributes to a culture of chronic h omelessness.