Knight Kelly R, Weiser Jeremy, Handley Margaret A, Olsen Pamela, Weeks John, Kushel Margot
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Qual Soc Work. 2022 May;21(3):542-558. doi: 10.1177/14733250211012745. Epub 2021 May 6.
The proportion of adults age 50 and older experiencing homelessness is growing. People at risk for homelessness may stay with family and friends to prevent homelessness. Moving in with housed family and friends is a strategy used to exit homelessness. Little is known about these stays with family and friends. This study examined the motivations for and challenges of older adults experiencing homelessness staying with or moving in with family or friends.
We purposively sampled 46 participants from the HOPE HOME study, a cohort of 350 community-recruited adults experiencing homelessness age ≥50 in Oakland, CA. Inclusion criteria included having stayed with housed family/friends for ≥1 nights in the prior 6 months. We sampled 19 family/friends who had hosted participants experiencing homelessness. We conducted separate, semi-structured interviews, summarized, memoed and coded data consistent using a grounded theory approach.
Older adults experiencing homelessness reported primarily temporary stays. Motivations for stays on the part of participants included a need for environmental, physical, and emotional respite from homelessness. Both individuals experiencing homelessness and hosts cited the mutual benefits of stays. Barriers to stays included feelings of shame, concerns about burdening the hosts, and interpersonal conflicts between older adults experiencing homelessness and host participants.
There are potential opportunities and concerns surrounding temporary stays between older adults experiencing homelessness and their family or friends. Policy solutions should support the potential mutual benefits of temporary stays, while addressing interpersonal barriers to strengthen kinship and friendship networks and mediate the negative impacts of homelessness.
50岁及以上无家可归的成年人比例正在上升。面临无家可归风险的人可能会与家人和朋友住在一起以避免无家可归。搬去与有住房的家人和朋友同住是一种摆脱无家可归状态的策略。人们对这些与家人和朋友的居住情况知之甚少。本研究调查了无家可归的老年人与家人或朋友同住或搬去同住的动机及面临的挑战。
我们从HOPE HOME研究中有意抽取了46名参与者，该研究队列包括加利福尼亚州奥克兰市350名通过社区招募的年龄≥50岁的无家可归成年人。纳入标准包括在过去6个月内与有住房的家人/朋友同住≥1晚。我们抽取了19名接待过无家可归参与者的家人/朋友。我们进行了单独的半结构化访谈，采用扎根理论方法对数据进行总结、记录和编码。
无家可归的老年人报告主要是临时居住。参与者居住的动机包括需要从无家可归的状态中获得环境、身体和情感上的喘息机会。无家可归的个人和接待者都提到了居住的互利之处。居住的障碍包括羞耻感、担心给接待者带来负担，以及无家可归的老年人与接待参与者之间的人际冲突。
无家可归的老年人与其家人或朋友之间的临时居住存在潜在的机会和问题。政策解决方案应支持临时居住的潜在互利之处，同时解决人际障碍，以加强亲属关系和友谊网络，并调解无家可归的负面影响。
