In search of Homefull neighbourhoods Safety and safeness beyond the home

Book chapter, 2026

The production of Homefull cities requires more than simply the provision of accommodation for those experiencing homelessness. In this chapter, Joshua Levy, Chiara Valli and Kristina Grange explore the social relations at a neighbourhood level that can constrain or promote Homefullness for those in temporary accommodation. They do this through the case study of an emergency accommodation for women in Gothenburg, Sweden, whose move into a residential area prompted NIMBY (‘Not-In-My-BackYard’) protests from local residents and attempts at building bridges across social divides. Here, Levy, Valli and Grange focus specifically on the ways in which a discourse of safety and safeness has come to dominate urban politics in Sweden and argue that the production of Homefull cities requires a radical shift with regard to whose rights to safety and safeness are valued at the neighbourhood scale.