Educating Homeless Students Michelle Allison Homeless Education Liaison, LISD.
Women’s Homeless Pathways: A Longitudinal Perspective
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Transcript of Women’s Homeless Pathways: A Longitudinal Perspective
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
“Just Keep Doing What We’re
Supposed To Do”:
A Qualitative Longitudinal
Perspective of Homeless
Women’s Pathways
Sarah Sheridan, PhD Candidate, Trinity College Dublin
Supervisor: Dr Paula Mayock
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9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Focus of Presentation
1. Explanations of homelessness: Structure versus
agency debate
2. Qualitative Longitudinal Research (QLR)
3. The study
4. Housing pathways of sample between Phase I & II
5. Exploring structure and agency in the data
6. Conclusion
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Structure Versus Agency Explanations of homelessness:
Up until 1960s – individual deficits
1960s – 1980s – structural explanations
Recent years – interaction between individual and structural
processes
A “new orthodoxy” of homelessness?
Since 2000, research on homeless women had grown somewhat.
Explanations relate more to structural processes: feminisation of
poverty; demographic changes; rise of female-headed
households; weakening welfare systems, etc.
Existing studies which include (valuable) insights on agency among
homeless women generally refer to survival strategies (Reeve et
al., 2005), gender performances and reducing the possibility of
victimisation (May et al., 2007; Huey and Berndt, 2008).
Explanations of homelessness (O’Sullivan, 2008):
1960s and 1970s – individual deficits
1980s -1990s – structural explanations
Recent years – interaction between individual and structural
processes. Certain groups at greater risk of homelessness due to
changing structural conditions.
Relationship between structure and agency not well understood
(Somerville, 2013).
Since 2001, research on homeless women growing slowly – structural
explanations of homelessness.
Existing studies on women which include (valuable) insights on agency
among homeless women: survival strategies (Reeve et al., 2005),
gender performances and tactics to reduce the risk of victimisation (May
et al., 2007; Huey and Berndt, 2008).
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Qualitative Longitudinal
Research (QLR) - Longitudinal research can capture the multidimensional
nature of homelessness and how homelessness is a
dynamic process (O’Sullivan, 2008).
- QLR can capture change over time, as “it is only through
time that we can gain a better appreciation of how the
personal and the social, agency and structure, the
micro and macro are interconnected and how they
come to be transformed” (Neale and Flowerdew,
2003:190).
- QLR can enlighten our understanding of the relationship
between how lives are talked about and how lives are
lived (McNaughton, 2006).
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Aim of Presentation
AIM OF PRESENTATION:
To explore structure and agency in
women’s accounts of
accommodation transitions over
time.
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
The Study
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
The Study Phase I (Mayock and Sheridan, 2012)
In-depth study of homeless women in Ireland
60 qualitative life-history interviews
Ethnographic observation (4 services)
Phase II (Current PhD study)
Tracked and re-interviewed = 40/57 women
Average time between interview = 2 years & 8 months
Lengthy but enlightening tracking process
Ethnographic observation (6 services)
20
10
-20
11
2
01
2-2
01
3
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Homeless Pathways of Sample
Emergency accommodation (n=18)
Transitional accommodation (n=9)
Private rented accommodation (n=7)
With friends or family (n=2)
Long-term supported
accommodation (n=2)
Domestic violence refuge (n=1)
Dilapidated house (n=1)
Exited Homelessness (n=17)
Private rented accommodation* (n=6)
RAS accommodation (n=4)
Council house/flat (n=4)
Housing association unit (n=3)
Transitional/Long-term
Accommodation (n=7)
Still Homeless (n=16)
Emergency homeless accommodation (n=8)
Private-rented accommodation * (n=4)
With friends or family (n=3)
Dilapidated house (n=1)
Phase I (2010-11) Phase II (2012-13)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Accommodation transitions
between Phase I & II
Housing Status at Phase II Average number of transitions
between Phase I & II
Women who exited homelessness
1.7
Women who remained homeless
6.3
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Preliminary Analysis
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
1. Exiting Homelessness and
Narratives of Agency Narratives of agency.
Strategies to secure stable housing:
[Interviewer: Did you get help securing the council house?] No!
They [the homeless service] didn’t help! I done it meself. I
would ring the corporation all the time, and I would say ‘Look, I
will live in a dog box!’…...So, I kept ringing, and ringing, and
ringing…. (Bernadette, 40, housed)
Sense of pride and empowerment after being housed:
“I feel as though I did it all myself! Fair enough, I got help and
support, but I feel the majority of it was myself - which is nice.”
(Emily, 24, housed)
The housing officer turned around to me and said, “You poor,
poor girl”, and I said “I am not poor, and neither am I a girl!
(Imelda, 37, housed)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Drawing on sources of perceived power:
“I went to my local politician…I said ‘If you don’t have me, I
am the next one committing suicide. I can’t hack this, I am
sick of being knocked all my life, and no one has ever given
me a proper chance and all I want is a roof over my head for
my children and just to have a bit of peace in my life!’ …I
got an offer of two houses in one day!” (Imelda, 37 housed)
Circumnavigating services and systems to exit:
I would never have taken a place where my Mam lives in the
flats. That was the stem of all my problems. You know?
And, I needed to get away from there fast. That’s why I
ended up in prison because I refused bail – I was breaking
up with my partner, I couldn’t afford a place on my own... I
knew if I went in, I could talk to the probation officers, I
knew people who had got help, and it stemmed from there.
(Donna, 40, housed)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
However there were structural underpinnings in their exiting of
homelessness which may be obscured through the women’s
accounts (McNaughton, 2006) .
Women’s routes out of homelessness were heavily
influenced by support from a range of services.
Crucially, the women who exited homelessness usually fit a
certain profile which may be deemed more “service-friendly”:
Characteristics of “deserving” service user (i.e.
homelessness linked to domestic violence or poverty; less
likely to report addiction or mental health problems)
More likely to be compliant, willing to engage and
cooperate, affable, and grateful.
Migrant women reported more positive pathways than
non-migrants.
Lower levels of childhood adversity.
Less likely to identify with homelessness subculture.
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
I have been there [to council office] and
the chief housing officer…she was not
interviewing me but she saw me from
inside and she saw I am crying and
everything…I think she found me as this
person who was trying to make a better
life I think, I am not a woman only
drinking and no future. She knew I will be
able buy a new house after this lease
finishes in 10 years (Aisha, 34, housed).
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
2. Remaining Homeless and
Restricted Agency
Structural constraints and restricted options
in relation to exiting homelessness.
So, I filled in an application form and was waiting a
couple of weeks, and she came back and says my
needs didn’t fit the criteria of the [housing]. So, I just
thought argh sure, private rented – or something but
I thought I don’t want to do that, because I am after
sticking it this long here [in B&B], I am not going into
a room like this again to spend the rest of me life. I
have three kids you know what I mean, I need them
to come and stay with me. (Stephanie, 35, homeless).
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Personal progress; structural barriers:
So I kind of feel that for getting clean, I am
owed a bit around luck, so to speak, or a
bit of positivity in me life. But I don’t know
who I think owes it to me, but I feel that I
owed something …..I feel like I am owed a
bit respect, or trust…And I just feel like I
am not getting anywhere…Nearly I am
owed it for myself...” (Caoimhe, 34, still
homeless )
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Profile of women who remained homeless:
High levels of adversity and victimisation during
childhood
Addiction problems
Mental health issues (worsening over time)
More likely to be more entrenched in homelessness
services and ‘street subculture’.
Less likely to “cooperate” or comply with services yet
were highly dependent (and institutionalised) in service
provision.
Like, people telling me to do this, do that, go for
this, go for that – if I want to do it, I’ll do it. People
don’t have to push me to do it. If I don’t want to
do counselling, I don’t have to do it. It’s like, other
people have control over me, since being in here
[hostel]. (Viv, 38, homeless)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
“I don’t feel normal, I just feel like I am a
statistic. I think I am just a number.
…And I am not a number! I am a person!
You know?...I just want to be treated
normal. I just feel that in this kind of
bubble that I am caught with all the
different services, that I can’t be
myself….” (Gráinne, 34, homeless)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
3. Structure and Agency
Interplay: A Balancing Act Balancing service requirements with individual needs:
We have to just keep at it. Just keeping what we are
supposed to do…just play the game. (Chloe, 29,
homeless)
I was doing everything to please everybody else, but
not meself. I went to double counselling, double
acupuncture, like everything – anything like. They
would say ‘Róisín, do this! You are very good! Do
that!’ but actually I was doing it for them, I wasn’t
doing it for myself. (Róisín, 40, still homeless)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Negotiating control when interacting with services:
[The homeless support service] wanted to kind of
take over and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want them to
telling me what to do…. As If I was incapable! ... All
that is all over, thank God. I don’t have hassle with
anybody, like I had in the past, that was horrible.
Those people calling you into meetings, that was
horrible… but that’s how the system works.
(Fionnuala, 61, housed)
“Cooperating” and positively engaging with services:
I’ve constantly just learned so much, and it’s really all
down to [homeless service] - they pushed me even
when I didn’t want to do things they pushed me, in a
nice way. (Rosie, 41, housed)
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Conclusion (1)
Structure and agency were both present but interacted in
highly complex ways in the women’s narratives.
Women who exited homelessness viewed their exits as being
hugely influenced by their own individual action.
Notwithstanding the very positive impact their own actions had
on housing transitions, when looking beyond their narrative
and at the characteristics of this group, it can be argued that
structural processes played an equally important part.
Women who exited demonstrated a greater capacity to use the
available structures and services to secure housing.
They were a “better fit” with the resources available to service providers
and were more willing to comply, than those who did not exit.
Those who exited by Phase II interview described their “success
stories” in a way which counteracts discourses of homeless women as
victims and vulnerable.
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Conclusions (2) Women who remained homeless described restricted agency
and extreme frustration with regards their continued
homelessness.
Over prolonged periods of homelessness, women’s
capability to act as independent agents was stifled as a
result of being entrenched in the homelessness service
system. This negatively impacts on women’s likelihood to
exit homelessness in the future.
Women’s narrative revealed how they engaged in a balancing
act between structure and agency in relation to satisfying
service providers versus their own desires.
Qualitative longitudinal data has the capacity to uncover a
more multidimensional understanding of the women’s lives
over time; it captures both ‘lives as talked about’ and ‘lives as
lived’ (McNaughton, 2006).
9th European Research Conference
Homelessness in Times of Crisis
Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014
Thank you! References: Huey, L & Berndt, E. 2008) You’ve gotta learn how to play the game’: Homeless women’s use
of gender performance as a tool for preventing victimisation. Sociological Review, 56, 2, 177-
194.
May, J., Cloke, P. & Johnsen, S. (2007) Alternative cartographies of homelessness:
Rendering visible British women’s experiences of ‘visible’ homelessness. Gender, Place and
Culture, 14, 121-140.
McNaughton, C. (2006) Agency, structure and biography: Charting Transitions through
homelessness in late modernity. Auto/Biography, 14: 134-152.
Neale, B & Flowerdew, J. (2003) Time, texture and childhood: The contours of qualitative
longitudinal research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology: Theory and
Practice, 6, 3, 189-99.
O’Sullivan, E. (2008) Pathways through homelessness: Theoretical constructions and policy
implications, in: Doherty, J. and Edgar, B. (eds.) ‘In my Caravan, I feel like Superman’:
Essays in Honour of Henk Meert, 1963-2006. Brussels: Feantsa.
Reeve, K., Casey, R., and Goudie, R. (2006) Homeless Women Still being Failed, Yet Striving
to Survive. London: Crisis.
Somerville, P. (1992) Homelessness and the Meaning of Home: Rooflessness or
Rootlessness? International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16, 4, 529-530.