“I just needed someone to believe in me.” A qualitative analysis of youths’ experiencing homelessness perspectives of a housing first intervention

Housing first interventions are commonly considered best practice when addressing homelessness among adults. However, to date to there is limited research exploring housing first interventions with youth experiencing homelessness. Homeless youth are a distinctly different population than homeless ad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChildren and youth services review Vol. 143; p. 106655
Main Authors Brakenhoff, Brittany, Martin, Jared, Slesnick, Natasha, Holowacz, Eugene, Yilmazer, Tansel, Chavez, Laura, Kelleher, Kelly
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Science Ltd 01.12.2022
Subjects
Adults
Best practice
Homeless people
Housing
Intervention
Qualitative research
Selfimprovement
Youth
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Summary:Housing first interventions are commonly considered best practice when addressing homelessness among adults. However, to date to there is limited research exploring housing first interventions with youth experiencing homelessness. Homeless youth are a distinctly different population than homeless adults, thus housing first interventions will need to consider the unique needs of homeless youth. To better understand how homeless youth may respond to a housing first intervention, the current study utilized qualitative interviews with 17 youth who had recently participated in a 6-month housing first intervention. Overall, youth reported generally positive experiences and believed the intervention had led to improvements in their lives. Similar to research with homeless adults, it appears that by being provided housing youth were able to move out of survival mode, which led to their feelings of self-improvement.
ISSN:0190-7409
1873-7765
DOI:10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106655