Reasons and context for homeless people’s success and failure in managing their housing situation over the life course
The 2019 RILSA quantitative survey confirmed that the majority of homeless people are in housing need for a long time and, despite the use of specific social assistance services, repeatedly fall into homelessness. This project therefore aims to expand on these statistical findings by understanding the alchemy of successful reintegration, primarily through analysing the personal experiences of 10–15 successfully reintegrated individuals. It is envisaged that individual interviews will be conducted with people who have a personal experience of homelessness / housing need, but who currently have at least 2 years of stable accommodation that they are able to maintain without ongoing active support from social workers. These interviews will be supplemented by a further 10–15 interviews with people who are still experiencing homelessness. These interviewees and their stories will serve as a kind of “control group” to understand to what extent “successful reintegration” is the result of individual personal characteristics and to what extent it is the result of the quality, specificity and intensity of external (social) support. There will be at least 5 (but no more than 7) women in each of the two groups of respondents mentioned above.
Respondents will be identified with the help of social workers and non-profit organisations from different parts of the Czech Republic. Emphasis will be placed on diversity, i.e. that individual respondents come from different regions and cities. Preference will be given to respondents with more intensive / longer experience of housing need.
The aim of the intended analysis of these individual interviews is to identify moments in the respondents’ past that led to the successful resolution of their housing situation or, on the contrary, to the failure of this resolution. If the person has ever received support from social work, it will be observed what was the reason why this support helped or failed to resolve the housing need. The analysis of the interviews will identify all types of social assistance received by the respondents during their homelessness, their exit from homelessness and their subsequent reintegration process. It will then describe their role and importance (their strengths and weaknesses) in the person’s journey out of homelessness.