‘It's just like we're going around in circles and going back to the same thing …’: The Dynamics of Women's Unresolved Homelessness

Abstract

The condition of long-term homelessness has been demonstrated to affect a far smaller number of individuals compared with those who exit and become housed. It is nonetheless a pressing policy concern because of the high social and economic costs associated with prolonged homelessness. As with much homelessness research generally, gender is not adequately addressed, and frequently ignored, within analyses of ‘long-term’ or ‘chronic’ homelessness. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance and examines the experiences of women who have lengthy homeless histories based on the accounts of 34 women who are participants in a larger biographical study of homeless women in Ireland. Women's movements into and out of homeless service settings are examined in some detail, as are their accounts of the lived experience of prolonged homelessness. Their narratives reveal their mothering roles and identities, intimate relationships and intimate partner violence, and their ongoing interactions with institutional settings, including homeless hostels, as key dynamics influencing their movements and the strategies used by them as they attempt to manage their homelessness. We conclude by highlighting several gender-specific forces driving the women's experiences of unresolved homelessness. A number of key messages for policy are also discussed.

Keywords::

• homeless women
• gender
• long-term homelessness
• biographical research
• ethnography
• Ireland

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the funding received from the Irish Research Council's Research Fellowship Scheme, 2009–2010 and from the Health Service Executive, Social Inclusion, for the conduct of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Email: [email protected]

² Email: [email protected]

³ Throughout Europe, long-term homelessness is sometimes not clearly defined, and where definitions are available, they differ between countries. For example, the Irish definition refers only to the amount of time spent in emergency accommodation, stating that long-term homelessness is ‘the occupation of emergency accommodation for longer than 6 months’ (Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 2008, p. 7). In Finland, the definition is broader, referring to the frequency as well as the duration of homeless experiences, with people classified as long-term homeless ‘if their homelessness has lasted at least a year or they have been homeless several times in the past three years’ (Tainio & Fredriksson, 2009, p. 183). The US definition similarly includes the duration and frequency of homeless episodes in setting out the parameters of chronic homelessness, which is defined as an ‘unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more or has had at least 4 episodes of homelessness in the past three years’ (US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2008, p. 15). Although there is clearly a lack of consensus on what precisely constitutes ‘chronic’ homelessness, the condition is generally understood as one where prolonged and/or repeat patterns of homelessness are experienced by individuals.

⁴ The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, before the commencement of fieldwork.

⁵ At the time the research was initiated, it had been almost 25 years since the publication of the only dedicated study of women and homelessness in Ireland (Kennedy, 1985).

⁶ All data excerpts have been anonymised; personal reference points (including the names of places and people) have been removed or substituted with pseudonyms.

⁷ Seventeen migrant women participated in the research. These women came from parts of Europe (Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Romania and Greece), Asia (Bangladesh, The Philippines, India and Pakistan), South Africa, and Bolivia. The homeless histories of the 17 migrant women interviewed were comparatively shorter than the non-migrant women in the sample. Six of the migrant women were homeless for 5 months or less; nine women had been homeless for between 6 months and 2 years; and two women had experienced between 2 and 3 years of homelessness (see Mayock & Sheridan, 2012a for a more detailed account of the migrant women in the study).

⁸ One woman (aged 62) from this sub-sample had spent much of her childhood in an industrial school and talked at length about the ongoing negative impact of that experience; a second woman had spent 17 years in foster care.

⁹ This was only slightly over the average age profile of the wider sample which was 34.8 years.

¹⁰ The vast majority of the women reported either a current or past substance use problem, and most had entered a drug or alcohol treatment setting at some point, often on more than one occasion. Although a number attributed their homelessness, at least in part, to a drug or alcohol dependency, there was also strong evidence that women used substances to alleviate past traumas and to cope with the experience of homelessness.

¹¹ See Mayock & Sheridan (2013) for a detailed analysis of these women's histories of incarceration and criminal justice contact.

¹² The vast majority of the women reported one or more mental health problem, and, in many cases, mental health problems were complicated by reports of problem alcohol and/or drug use. Practically, all of the women stated that they suffered from ‘bouts’ of depression, which were frequently accompanied by anxiety. A considerable number reported suicidal ideation and/or a prior suicide attempt.