Sense of community through supportive housing among formerly homeless individuals with serious mental illness

ABSTRACT

Much research documents the correlation between homelessness and mental illness. Often, existing research focuses on deficits that live at the intersection of these phenomena. The present study utilizes a sense of community (SOC) framework to interrogate the ways in which formerly homeless individuals with serious mental illness perceive and experience community in supportive housing. Through focus groups with 18 consumers, this study contextualizes dimensions of SOC (membership, emotional connection, needs fulfillment, and influence) for the aforementioned population. Analysis of focus group data produced 16 themes and subthemes that support and extend our understanding of SOC for a population often conceptualized as isolated and alone. Implications for policy and practice emphasize: (1) the importance of supportive housing communities and the call for policymakers to increase funding for such programing; and, (2) that practitioners facilitate housing members’ voices to effectuate change in supportive housing and increase SOC.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• supportive housing
• housing first
• sense of community
• serious mental illness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Brad Forenza, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy at Montclair State University. There, his research foci include youth development, civil society, and social policy.

David T. Lardier Jr., MEd, LAC, is a doctoral student and Fellow in the Family Studies PhD program at Montclair State University. Mr Lardier’s research interests focus on understanding socio-cultural and environmental factors that affect urban-minority youth and the empowerment-based mechanisms present that mitigate negative behaviors.