State-Sponsored Unhomeliness: Struggle for Certainty and Privacy in Serbia Social Housing

This paper examines the lived realities of housing precarity within Serbia’s social housing estates, focusing on the concept of unhomeliness. Drawing on multimodal fieldwork conducted in two Serbian social housing estates, it explores how marginalized inhabitants navigate the erosion of stability, privacy, and living conditions. The findings reveal how systemic neglect and institutional failures compound vulnerabilities, fostering pervasive instability and alienation. Social housing, intended as a solution to housing needs, emerges as a paradoxical site where shelter is provided yet insecurity, unhomeliness and marginalization persist. Through the lens of unhomeliness, the analysis reveals the emotional and material toll of precarious housing, such as utility disconnections, overcrowding, and structural neglect. The article situates unhomeliness as both a structural and experiential phenomenon, emphasizing how the erosion of welfare housing policies and lack of privacy undermine the basic functions of a “home” and shedding the light on the tension between inhabitants’ efforts to create autonomy and dignity, and the challenges they face. This analysis advances understanding of housing inequality and resilience among marginalized communities in post-socialist contexts, offering a critical perspective on the interplay between systemic neglect, individual agency, and the contested meanings of home.