Being a Homeless Person

Abstract

So how was ‘being homeless’ actually experienced by the people studied here? For the majority it involved a cycle of housing insecurity — staying with friends, relatives, and in hostels, and other forms of temporary accommodation paid for by Housing Benefit and arranged by workers in the homeless system. For some this was a short term experience, lasting a year or so before they gained their own tenancy once more. For others, this could span ten or 20 years, as part of a life interspersed with spells in hospital, prison, and residential drug or alcohol rehabilitation centres. For many (17) it also involved periods sleeping rough, sometimes alone, and out of sight, up alleyways and in stairwells, or with others in the same situation, under bridges and in parks.