This article examines the gendered and classed dynamics of homelessness and displacements in Portugal. I use the lens of displaced survival to bring light to the complex web of relations that promote the housing exclusion of low-wage single mothers. I show how these families, expelled from housing programs and unable to afford housing in the private rental sector, are left to suffer from a cycle of displacements, leading to accentuated poverty and dispossession, which also a leads to overgenerational perpetuation of poverty. In addition, they face additional vulnerabilities as mothers. Methodologically the study draws from life-history interviews and policy analysis, conducted from 2017 to 2019 in Lisbon. In addition to being exploited within paid and unpaid labour and having to pay an unaffordable rent, these displacements and dispossessions are profoundly affected by the position of these women as ‘disposable’ workers within the low-wage service sector, mainly the caredomestic sector; by their general position as women and mothers, responsible for social reproduction; and by their omission of the policy responses to homelessness.

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displacement,care work,social reproduction,homelessness,gender