How Do Poor Families in Australia Avoid Homelessness? An fsQCA Analysis

ABSTRACT

Families experiencing homelessness are an increasing phenomenon in Australia. However, the question of why some families living in poverty and disadvantage become homeless and others do not is not well explained in the literature. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), this paper investigates how recent “shock” or crisis events, poor health and financial stress interact with social capital and emotional well-being to affect housing security for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian families living in poverty. The analysis draws on 307 cases (individuals with dependent and resident children) from Journeys Home, a longitudinal survey of extremely disadvantaged Australian welfare recipients. The results are explained within a critical realist understanding of depth ontology, stratification, emergence and the interaction between structure and agency. Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory provides a framework for thinking about homelessness as a severe form of poverty and resource depletion.

KEYWORDS:

• Family homelessness
• qualitative comparative analysis
• conservation of resources
• critical realism

Acknowledgments

This article uses unit record data from Journeys Home: Longitudinal Study of Factors Affecting Housing Stability (Journeys Home). The study was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). The Department of Jobs and Small Business (DJSB) has provided information for use in Journeys Home and it is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this article, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to DSS, DJSB, or the Melbourne Institute.

Thank you to Prof. Wendy Olsen, the faculty and participants of the 4^th International QCA Paper Development Workshop, and the comments of the anonymous reviewers who generously contributed to the refinement of this manuscript.

Conflicts Of Interest

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

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Membership of a fizzy set can take any value (or membership score) between 0 (not in set) and 1 (completely in set); whereas a crisp set may only take the values of 0 or 1.

2. I am a descendant of British immigrants to Australia. I recognize my privileged place with the settler society, and I do not, and cannot, speak for Indigenous people. I have endeavoured to reflect the voices of Indigenous peoples and their analyses of the structural causes of disadvantage and homelessness.