The hierarchy of needs pioneered by Abraham Maslow positions shelter among the most basic necessities for human survival, and part of the foundation from which human experience can be realized to the fullest. This is followed by the need for security of this space, then the need for social acceptance. This level lies two steps above basest survival--acceptance cannot be gained until basic needs are met, which is a concept that I am sure most in a capitalist society are unfamiliar with. In the essay written by Rosalyn Deutsche, the hierarchy is made into a single point of human necessity: for some fringe groups, available and protected shelter can mean the difference between social acceptance and vilification. Citing the upheaval as aftereffect of renovation programs in New York, Deutsche relates the politically charged nature that space really attests to--it is not simply a matter of brick and mortar. Rather, it must also be conceived as "social, as...an economic, political, and cultural construction."

Beautification of so-called public spaces by clearing out and cleaning up rotten and diseased areas with no thought for the dead and dying among them is a superficial correctional act, one aimed at capturing the unity of a by-gone era in New York (that arguably never existed). This unity is in reality a perceived similitude of beliefs and goals of the citizens, one that "homogenizes and deterritorializes": all manner of downtrodden, the homeless especially, are pushed out of public space and thus discourse (they are unable to access the political if they are not included in concepts of public space) under the blandly united front of renewal. Fixing the ailments of society in such a matter is comparable to going to a plastic surgeon for the treatment of cancer.

While marginalizing natives by renovating spaces to a social stratum beyond their access is indeed an effective method for pushing them out, it cannot, as Deutsche seems to argue, be the only source of homelessness in the city. However, this is an unimportant discrepancy. No matter the cause, homelessness is a problem that the city tackles by attacking the homeless head-on. The irony here is that in doing so, city officials fail to see that they themselves are a source of the problem. Instead of renovating city spaces as a mending process for social ills, they should focus on mending people--something that Krzysztof Wodiczko attempts to do with the "Homeless Vehicle Project". By creating low-impact (not a lot of training nor relocation is required) employment via branches of the city that literally travel to the homeless, he "legitimates the status of these residents as members of the urban community". In doing so, the forgotten are re-included in the hierarchy--both Maslow's and society's.

Rosalyn Deutsche. “Architecture of the Evicted.” Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. Ed. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 150-165