“I Never Imagined This Could Happen to Me”: Experiences of Displacement Among Recently Homeless Older Adults in Montreal Quebec

Background: The combination of population aging, globalization, outsourcing of labour and retrenchment of social programs has contributed to the rising number of recently homeless older adults.  Despite these trends, homelessness programming continues to be largely directed to youth, while ageing policies and programs cater primarily to conventionally-housed older adults who are ‘aging in place’.  Experiences of older adults who may literally be aging-out-of-place and becoming homeless for the first time in later life has, as yet, received scant attention in research, policy, and practice.  Moreover, the small body of research specific to aging and homelessness has primarily focused on long-term ‘chronic’ older homeless, thereby reinforcing the invisibility of recently homeless older adults.  Thus, this constructivist grounded theory study advances the knowledge on older homeless adults by exploring experiences of displacement (i.e., a rupture of the geographic, the social and the personal) among recently homeless older adults (i.e., adults who become homeless for the first time at age 50 years and over).

Methods: Using purposive and theoretical sampling, 12 in-depth, semi-structured, 1-3.5 hour audio-recorded interviews were conducted with men and women aged 50 years and older, who were experiencing homelessness for the first time in the last two years.  Participants were recruited via posted flyers in urban homelessness agencies and by referrals from service providers.  Interviews revealed how participants made sense of changes in their environment, eliciting rich accounts of 1) how they became homeless; 2) how they are experiencing homelessness; 3) facilitators/barriers to exiting homelessness; and 4) strategies to prevent homelessness and improve the situation of recent older homeless.  Drawing on the sensitizing concepts of displacement and place attachment, interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded using the constant comparison method, facilitated by Dedoose qualitative software. 

Results:  Data analysis revealed complex relationships between displacement and place attachment. Homelessness was experienced as a shock and shameful experience that disrupted participants’ place attachment and sense of self. Participants did not self-identify as homeless; they resisted adopting a homeless identity by battling place attachment at the shelter through actively working towards reintegration, and avoiding close contacts with other homeless people.  Shelter rules, regulations, and feeling unsafe within the shelter interfered with participants place attachment and further motivated them to exit homelessness as quickly as possible. Displacement-induced-distress was particularly acute for people who lived for a long period of time in their previous home and for people experiencing serial displacements while homeless (i.e., being forced to move shelter to shelter).   

Conclusion: Findings suggest that social workers need to be on the lookout for recently homeless adults who do not fit into stereotypes associated with long-term chronic homelessness— and who often do not self-identity as homeless.  This study also brings attention to the need for tailoring interventions for the growing subpopulation s of older homeless adults, i.e., focus on rapid rehousing and assistance navigating services in order to prevent the distress from serial displacements and entrenchment into long-term, chronic homelessness.  (488/500 words)