The homeless individual’s viewpoint: Causes of homelessness and resources needed to leave the sheltered environment

Johnetta Hardin; Diane E Wille

doi:10.1921/swssr.v19i2.1059

Authors

Johnetta Hardin Family & Chindren's Place
Diane E Wille

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1921/swssr.v19i2.1059

Abstract

Abstract: The current study is an investigation of homelessness from the viewpoint of the homeless, to determine the extent homeless individuals can provide information about causes of their homelessness, resources they need to leave the sheltered environment and attitudes about their current living arrangements. The 51 male and 52 female homeless participants in this study provided information about causes, resources needed and attitudes. Participants described multiple causes for their homelessness; males and females indicated differing causes. A wide range of resources were listed by the homeless individuals as needed to reduce their reliance on the sheltered environment, with some resources continuing beyond the attainment of a house and a job; males and females also indicated different needs. Findings in this study indicate that homeless individuals can provide relevant information and partner with social service professionals to create programs to meet individual needs and reduce reliance on sheltered environments.

Keywords: homeless; sheltered environments; gender differences

Author Biographies

Johnetta Hardin, Family & Chindren's Place

The homeless individual’s viewpoint:
Causes of homelessness and resources needed to leave the sheltered environment

Diane E Wille

Professor of Psychology

References

Argintaru, N., Chambers, C., Gogosis, E., Farrell, S., Palepu, A., Klodawsky, F., and Hwang, S. W. (2013) A cross-sectional observational study of unmet health needs among homeless and vulnerably housed adults in three Canadian cities. BMC Public Health, 13, 1-9

Axelson, L. and Dail, P. (1988) The changing character of homelessness in the United States. Family Relations, 37, 463-469

Calsyn, R. J. and Roades, L. A. (1994) Predictors of past and current homelessness. Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 272-278

Chamberlain, C. and Johnson, G. (2013) Pathways into adult homelessness. Journal of Sociology, 49, 60-77

Cohen, D. L. (1993) Family preservation cited as priority in serving homeless. Education Week, 13, 36

Committee to End Homelessness. (2011) [Accessed 15 September 2015 at http://www.sehkc.org/scope/causes.aspx]

Covin, L. (2012) Homelessness, poverty, and incarceration: The criminalization of despair. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 12, 439-456

Davis, L. and Wu, S. (2014) Social comparisons and life satisfaction across racial and ethnic groups: The effects of status, information and solidarity. Social Indicators Research, 117, 849-869

Desilver, D. (2014) Who’s Poor in America? 50 Years into the ‘War on Poverty,’ a Data Portrait. PEW Research Center [Accessed 17 November 2015 at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in-america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/]

Dyb, E. (2009) Imprisonment: A major gateway to homelessness. Housing Studies, 24, 809-824

Edens, E., Mares, A. S., and Rosenheck, R. A. (2011) Chronically homeless women report high rates of substance use problems equivalent to chronically homeless men. Women’s Health Issues, 21, 383-389

Federal definition of homeless. (2009) [Accessed 8 September 2015 at http://U.S.A.gov]

First, R., Rife, J., and Toomey, B. (1994) Homelessness in rural areas: Causes, patterns, and trends. Social Work, 39, 97-108

Geller, A. and Curtis, M. A. (2011) A sort of homecoming: Incarceration and the housing security of urban men. Social Science Research, 40, 1196-1213

Goode, J. and Maskovsky, J. (2001) The New Poverty Studies. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Grant, R., Gracy, D., Goldsmith, G., Shapiro, A., and Redlener, I. E. (2013) Twenty-five years of child and family homelessness: Where are we now? American Journal of Public Health, 103, e1-e10

Helfrich, C. and Fogg, L. (2007) Outcomes of a life skills intervention for homeless adults with mental illness. Journal of Primary Prevention, 28, 313-326

Johnson, G. and Chamberlain, C. (2011) Are the homeless mentally ill? Australian Journal of Social Issues (Australian Council of Social Service), 46, 29-48

Krumer-Nevo, M. (2005) Listening to ‘life knowledge’: a new research direction in poverty studies. International Journal of Social Welfare, 14, 99-106

Krumer-Nevo, M. and Barak, A. (2006) Service users’ perspectives on the benefits system in Israel: A Participatory Action Research. Social Policy and Administration, 40, 774-790

Krumer-Nevo, M., Monnickendam, M., and Weiss-Gal, I. (2009) Poverty-aware social work practice: A conceptual framework for Social Work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 45, 225-243

LaGory, M., Fitzpatrick, K., and Ritchey, F. (2001) Life chances and choices: Assessing quality of life among the homeless. The Sociological Quarterly, 42, 633-651

Lee, B., Lewis, D., and Jones, S. (1992) Are the homeless to blame? A test of two theories. The Sociological Quarterly, 33, 535-552

Lee, B., Tyler, K., and Wright, J. (2010) The new homeless revisited. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 501-521

Lebrun-Harris, L. A., Baggett, T. P., Jenkins, D. M., Sripipatana, A., Sharma, R., Hayashi, A., and Ngo-Metzger, Q. (2013) Health status and health care experiences among homeless patients in federally supported health centers: Findings from the 2009 Patient Survey. Health Services Research, 48, 992-1017

Liebow, E. (1993) Tell Them Who I Am. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Madianos, M., Chondraki, P., and Papadimitriou, G. (2013) Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among homeless people in Athens area: a cross-sectional study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 48, 1225-1234

Martens, W.J. (2001) Homeless and mental disorders. International Journal of Mental Health, 30, 79-96

Mayock, P., Corr, M., and O’Sullivan, E. (2011) Homeless young people, families and change: family support as a facilitator to exiting homelessness. Child and Family Social Work, 16, 391-401

Metraux, S., Clegg, L. X., Daigh, J. D., Culhane, D. P., and Kane, V. (2013) Risk factors for becoming homeless among a cohort of veterans who served in the era of the Iraq and Afghanistan Conflicts. American Journal of Public Health, 103, S255-S261

Miller, D. S., and Lin, E. B. (1988) Children in sheltered homeless families: Reported health status and use of health services. Pediatrics, 81, 668-674

Murray, S. (2011) Violence against homeless women: Safety and social policy. Australian Social Work, 64, 346-360

National Coalition for the Homeless (2009a) Homeless Families with Children. [Accessed 10 October 2015 at http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/families.html]

National Coalition for the Homeless (2009b) Who is Homeless? [Accessed 12 September 2015 at http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html]

National Coalition for the Homeless (2007) Domestic Violence and Homelessness. [Accessed 12 September 2015 at http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/domestic.pdf

Nino, M., Loya, M., and Cuevas, M. (2009) Who are the chronically homeless? Social characteristics and risk factors associated with chronic homelessness. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 19, 41-65

Oddy, M., Moir, J., Fortescue, D., and Chadwick, S. (2012) The prevalence of traumatic brain injury in the homeless community in a UK city. Brain Injury, 26, 1058-1064

O’Toole, T. P., Gibbon, J. L., Hanusa, B. H., Freyder, P. J., Conde, A. M., and Fine, M. J. (2004) Self-reported changes in drug and alcohol use after becoming homeless. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 830-835

Phinney, R., Danziger, S., Pollack, H. A., and Seefeldt, K. (2007) Housing instability among current and former welfare recipients. American Journal of Public Health, 97, 832-837

Rao, K. (April 15, 2014) The Rent is too Damn High. Zillow Real Estate Research. [Accessed 15 October 2015 at http://www.zillow.com/research/rent-affordability-2013q4-6681/]

Scutella, R., Johnson, G., Moschion, J., Yi.-Ping, T., and Wooden, M. (2013) Understanding lifetime homeless duration: Investigating wave 1 findings from the Journeys Home project. Australian Journal of Social Issues (Australian Social Policy Association), 48, 83-110

Sosin, M. R. and Grossman, S. (1991) The mental health system and the etiology of homelessness: A comparison study. Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 337-350

Stergiopoulos, V., Gozdzik, A., O’Campo, P., Holtby, A. R., Jeyaratnam, J., and Tsemberis, S. (2014) Housing First: Exploring participants’ early support needs. BMC Health Services Research, 14, 1-31

Survey Finds Lack of Affordable Housing the Leading Cause of Homelessness in the United States. (2005) Journal of Housing and Community Development, 62, 14

Sutherland, E. and Locke, H. (1936) Twenty Thousand Homeless Men: A study of unemployed in the Chicago shelters. New York: Lippincott

Thomas, T., Conde-Martel, A., Gibbon, J., and Hanusa, B. (2003) Health care of homeless veterans. Journal of General Medicine, 18, 929-932

Thurston, W. E., Roy, A., Clow, B., Este, D., Gordey, T., Haworth-Brockman, M., and ...Carruthers, L. (2013) Pathways into and out of homelessness: Domestic violence and housing security for immigrant women. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 11, 278-298

Torchalla, I., Strehlau, V., Li, K., and Krausz, M. (2011) Substance use and predictors of substance dependence in homeless women. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 118, 173-179

United States Census. (2011) Historical Census of Housing Tables. [Accessed 16 October 2015 at https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html]

Upshur, C. C., Weinreb, L., Cheng, D. M., Kim, T. W., Samet, J. H., and Saitz, R. (2014) Does experiencing homelessness affect women’s motivation to change alcohol or drug use? American Journal on Addictions, 23, 76-83

Wagner, D. (1993) Checkerboard Square. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc

Weiser, S. D., Neilands, T. B., Comfort, M. L., Dilworth, S. E., Cohen, J., Tulsky, J. P., and Riley, E. D. (2009) Gender-specific correlates of incarceration among marginally housed individuals in San Francisco. American Journal of Public Health, 99, 1459-1463

Williams, S., and Stickley, T. (2011) Stories from the streets: People’s experiences of homelessness. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 18, 432-439

Wood, D. L., Valdez, R., Hayashi, T., and Shen, A. (1990) Health of homeless children and housed, poor children. Pediatrics, 86, 858-867