Identifying pious and heretical citizens in a permanent supported housing community

This article offers an analysis of the impact of recovery-oriented treatment discourses and practices on tenant-staff relationships in the context of the Pinewood Apartments, a Texas-based permanent supported housing community. Drawing on 6 months of ethnographic research and personal experience of working as a caregiver at Pinewood, I demonstrate how tenant-staff relationships were compromised by service providers' negative evaluations of certain tenants in the context of emotionally charged service interactions. These negative evaluations, I argue, stem from deeply held ideas about valuable citizenship that are embedded in the philosophy and practices of recovery, which emphasizes client choice, self-sufficiency, and autonomy. It should be noted, though, that negative evaluations were not necessarily definitive; both tenants and service providers at times exhibited sympathy and forgiveness for each other.