A scoping review examining the association of housing quality and psychosocial well-being following homelessness: an ecological systems perspective

ABSTRACT

Housing quality (HQ) has been previously associated with health and quality of life. Although HQ is an important factor in preventing homelessness, little is known about the range and breadth of this body of literature. To identify existing studies, we conducted a scoping review guided by the question: “in what ways has housing quality been associated with psychosocial well-being following homelessness in existing peer-reviewed literature?” using the framework proposed by Arksey & O'Malley and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Our search was deployed in eight databases. A total of 713 titles and abstracts were screened following the removal of duplicates, and 32 articles were included in narrative synthesis. Six themes emerged from our data analysis of included articles: 1) quality of housing affecting well-being; 2) feeling forced to live in unsafe and poor-quality housing due to no other options; 3) HQ mediated by housing first; 4) determinants of HQ; 5) standardized measures of HQ; and 6) HQ is de-emphasized in research and practice following homelessness. Our findings demonstrate that HQ is associated with psychosocial well-being at micro, meso, exo, and macro systems levels for persons experiencing homelessness. We argue addressing HQ following homelessness is a key homelessness prevention strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing quality
• homelessness
• well-being
• homelessness prevention
• ecological systems

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank the peer reviewers and editorial team for their efforts and helpful feedback in shaping this work during the publication process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding statement

No Funding or sources of support are related to this study.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Corinna Easton

Corinna Easton is a PhD candidate at Western University in the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab.

Elham Javadizadeh

Elham Javadizadeh is a PhD candidate at Western University in the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab.

Patti Plett

Patti Plett is PhD student at Western University in the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab.

Roxanne Isard

Roxanne Isard is Research & Scholarly Communication Librarian at Western University.

Sneh Hariramani

Sneh Hariramani is an MSc student at Western University in the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab.

Ghazaleh Salahi

Ghazaleh Salahi is an MSc student at Western University in the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab.

Carrie Anne Marshall

Dr. Carrie Anne Marshall is an assistant professor and director of the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab at Western University.