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Women and Homelessness in Ireland: a Biographical, Longitudinal Perspective University of Dublin Trinity College

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Women and Homelessness in Ireland: a Biographical, Longitudinal Perspective University of Dublin Trinity College Women and Homelessness in Ireland: A Biographical, Longitudinal Perspective A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D 2017 Sarah Sheridan University of Dublin Trinity College DECLARATION AND ONLINE ACCESS I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the Library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed: _____________________________ Sarah Sheridan 10 March 2017 i SUMMARY This doctoral thesis explores women’s experiences of homelessness and housing stability using a longitudinal qualitative approach. Based in the Republic of Ireland, the study was initiated in the context of a recognised dearth of empirical research on the topic of homelessness among women. Internationally, as well as in Ireland, the knowledge base on women’s homelessness is relatively weak, owing in large part to an historical tendency among research communities to concentrate on the experiences of men, who typically represent a larger proportion of the ‘visible’ homeless population. Many studies have ignored or side-lined the experiences of women, while others have adopted a largely gender-neutral approach. While in more recent years the research base on women’s homelessness has gradually expanded in some Northern European countries, as well as in North America and Australia, women’s homelessness is almost always researched cross-sectionally, yielding a rather static picture of women’s experiences of homelessness and housing instability, as well as a weak understanding of the processes and negotiations associated with their ‘journeys’ or routes through and possibly out of homelessness. This doctoral study aims to redress several gaps in the literature by researching women’s homelessness longitudinally. A core aim is to examine women’s homelessness over time, meaning that their lives and experiences would be viewed through the lens of change through a close examination of their homeless and housing transitions. This study also seeks to explore women’s relationships and interactions with services, their identities and identity transitions, and the meanings women attach to homelessness and home. The study, which is qualitative and longitudinal, integrates biographical interviews with ethnographic observation. At baseline (Phase I of the research), sixty women were recruited to the study between January 2010 and July 2011. All were recruited from homelessness or domestic violence services in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Galway. During this period, ethnographic observation was carried out at four service sites in Dublin city (which has recorded highest numbers of homeless persons in the country). Between November 2012 and September 2013 - approximately three years later - forty of these women were successfully tracked and re-interviewed Phase II of the research. Reliable information on the living situations of an additional nine women was attained at the time of follow-up, though it was not possible to re-interview these women. At Phase II of the study, ethnographic observation was again carried out in four service settings in Dublin city. The study’s retention rate is satisfactory given the recognised challenges associated with retaining transient populations in research of this kind. Methodologically, the study was guided by an interpretivist epistemology, which emphasises individuals’ personal understandings of their social worlds. The research therefore sought to give ‘voice’ to homeless women’s experiences and their perspectives on their lives and situations over time. Grounded in the rich qualitative data garnered ii over a significant period of contact and interaction with the study’s women, the research adopts an integrated theoretical lens in order to reveal both the distinctiveness of women’s homelessness, and also the heterogeneity and diversity of their experiences. Feminist, poststructuralist and cultural perspectives are mobilised with the aim of carving out a theoretical platform that can enhance the ‘visibility’ of women’s experiences of homelessness. The biographical narratives of the women point strongly to the negative ramifications of socioeconomic disadvantage and the structural barriers to housing security experienced across the life course. Structural disadvantage permeated the women’s accounts of becoming homeless; these same experiences remained stubbornly present in the lives of the vast majority by Phase II – which almost always affected their ability to access and sustain stable housing. While other experiences – including gender-based violence, histories of care, and problems associated with substance misuse – were present in the accounts of a significant number, women’s ability to address these life circumstances was strongly constrained by their economic marginality, gender and ethnicity/race, in many cases. Crucially, a large number of the study’s women either remained homeless or were precariously housed at the time of follow-up, highlighting the extent to which systems of intervention had failed to find a resolution to their homelessness. Many of the women had been navigating institutional or quasi-institutional settings for a large proportion of their lives. Women’s interactions with – and their responses to – service settings forms a major plank of the analysis presented in this work and, to a large extent, demonstrates the range of gendered expectations that women confronted as they navigated and moved through service systems over time. Women’s agency in the context of negotiating the power dynamics and relationships they routinely encountered reveals their efforts to oppose and resist, on the one hand, and the extent to which some (strategically) conformed and adapted, on the other. These responses – and the outcomes of these responses – cannot be detached from the identity work that women engaged in as they navigated homeless spaces, including homelessness (and other) services over time. Women were acutely aware of what surrounded them in the spaces they occupied and it is here that we begin to understand the relevance of categories of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ women, which appeared to have a strong bearing on the housing outcomes of a number, and on the perceived or imagined housing futures of many others. In this context, the notions of ‘homelessness’ and ‘home’ emerged as somewhat blurred concepts for a large number, particularly for women who had experienced trauma in their ‘home’ environments across the life course. These accounts also reveal the interconnectedness of numerous dimensions of the women’s social worlds – their children, family members, intimate partners, communities (homeless or housed) and wider society – as determinants of both their housing outcomes and how they constructed their past, present and futures. This thesis concludes by forwarding an integrated theoretical framework incorporating feminist, poststructuralist and cultural perspectives as a way of critically analysing how and why women become, remain, or exit homelessness over time. These theoretical iii insights also seek to expose how gender ideologies, norms and assumptions permeates policy and service delivery and these considerations not only impact on women’s trajectories through homelessness, but also bears influence on their sense of self and personal identity. The thesis concludes with a call for greater recognition of women’s homelessness in policy and service practice but also recommends that multiple responses are needed to prevent and resolve women’s homelessness, given the diversity of their experiences. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the vital financial support of the Studentship granted by the School of Social Work and Social Policy (TCD), with particular thanks to Head of School Professor Eoin O’Sullivan and Dr Steph Holt as Director of Teaching and Learning and for providing further work, teaching and professional opportunities over the course of the PhD. Special thanks to staff and students in the Children’s Research Centre, where I was based during the PhD. Thank you to Dr Michelle Share, Dr Lori Swords and Professor Trevor Spratt for support throughout, and particular thanks to Professor Mark Morgan for his memorable words of wisdom. I was not expecting to make so many great friends along the PhD journey in the CRC – thank you Kate, Mairead, Dovile, Gill, Mark, Sandra, Leslie and others for their support and who were always up for a pint! Central to my positive experience in the CRC was Dr Paula Mayock - firstly as a boss, subsequently as a supervisor, and always as a friend. Thank you Paula for your guidance and support over the years and for tirelessly providing feedback on many earlier drafts of this thesis. I am deeply appreciative to my family and friends for their emotional and practical support in recent years – first and foremost, to my parents, Kevin and Susan for all their love and reinforcement. Thank you to Claudio for giving me both space and attention in helping me complete this – and somehow always knowing when each was needed! Thank you to both Damian and Meli for their encouragement and for bringing Babies Rico and Coco into the world while I was writing this. I am very grateful for all my friends in Dublin who provided all the fun in-between and to my colleagues in Focus Ireland for their
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