Critical Conditions and Tipping Points into Couch Surfing

Background: “Couch surfing” is generally understood as the experience of staying on the couches of friends, relatives or acquaintances when one cannot afford to pay for housing. Couch surfing is believed to be common among unaccompanied homeless youth, however we still know little about the precursors to couch surfing. This study aimed to fill this gap by asking: “What are the conditions and tipping points that lead a young person to start a couch surfing episode?”

Methods: This study is based on 215 in-depth interviews with unstably housed youth ages 13 – 25 in five sites in the United States as part of the Voices of Youth Count policy research initiative. Participants were recruited through agency or school referrals; direct contact; snowball sampling; or flyers. The sample was primarily ages 18 – 21 (51%) and diverse with respect to race/ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Interviews started by asking youth to describe where their story of housing instability began, after which they were asked for details regarding each subsequent living arrangement. Each interview lasted approximately 60 – 90 minutes and was followed by a 10-minute survey about their demographic characteristics and other experiences. Interviews were transcribed and then coded using NVivo qualitative software. Analysis was guided by grounded theory principles.

Findings: The vast majority of young people (n = 208) indicate that they have couch surfed since becoming homeless, and 20% (n = 43) indicate that they couch surfed the night prior. Young people describe varying conditions that led them to a new episode of couch surfing. Family conditions, including death of a family member, commonly led to a new couch surfing episode. Many youth are couch surfing with one person before moving to a new couch surfing situation with a new host. These situations are most commonly precipitated by a change in circumstances of the host (i.e., incarceration, eviction), conflict with the host, or the young person’s perception that they are a burden. Many youth describe couch surfing after a poor transition out of probation or a hospital, foster care setting, or shelter. Other reasons for couch surfing occur within a pre-existing state of vulnerability in which the host invites the young person to stay with them. Youth also discussed ways in which they use couch surfing to avoid formal resources or to escape extreme weather. For some youth, couch surfing is the first experience of homelessness, and for others it is used as a stop-gap measure in the context of chronic or episodic homelessness.

Conclusion: Couch surfing experiences among youth are not isolated events but rather part of a complex homeless experience involving couch surfing arrangements both before and after other living situations. This work challenges the notion that youth who are couch surfing face less adversity than other homeless youth. There are varied reasons why youth begin a new episode of couch surfing, and many of these serve as natural points of prevention and intervention, including family or peer-based interventions and better transitions from formal institutions.