IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v9y2021i3p223-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women on the Border between Home and Homelessness: Analysing Worker–Client Relationship

Author

Listed:
  • Riitta Granfelt

    (Y‐Foundation, Finland)

  • Saija Turunen

    (Y‐Foundation, Finland)

Abstract

Housing First, as implemented in Finland, offers two housing options for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In this context, permanent housing refers to a scattered‐site rental flat or a community‐based housing unit in accordance with the Housing First principle. The focus of our study was on worker–client relationship and its diverse meanings at different stages of women’s housing pathways. Our data consisted of narrative thematic interviews with nine women who lived in scattered housing and three workers of a housing unit. The narratives of the housing unit workers were related to a deep concern for the women who have the most limited choices and who do not always see the housing unit as home. The workers felt frustrated with the inconsistency of care pathways in substance abuse care, psychiatric hospital care as well as gerontological services. Women in scattered housing had received sufficient support at critical stages of their housing pathway from the public service system, which is an integral part of the Finnish Housing First model. In their cases, homelessness and problems with housing had been addressed as part of a holistic effort to improve the quality of their lives either through adult social work, child protection aftercare or psychosocial services. Getting sufficient support in a vulnerable situation in a trust‐based worker–client relationship was a unifying theme of this dataset of women. Our study also challenges the development of services from the perspective of women whose housing pathways are characterised by numerous losses and exclusions, and for whom many services remain out of reach.

Suggested Citation

  • Riitta Granfelt & Saija Turunen, 2021. "Women on the Border between Home and Homelessness: Analysing Worker–Client Relationship," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 223-233.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v9:y:2021:i:3:p:223-233
    DOI: 10.17645/si.v9i3.4313
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/4313
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/si.v9i3.4313?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Padgett, Deborah K., 2007. "There's no place like (a) home: Ontological security among persons with serious mental illness in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1925-1936, May.
    2. Janika Mette & Swantje Robelski & Tanja Wirth & Albert Nienhaus & Volker Harth & Stefanie Mache, 2020. "“Engaged, Burned Out, or Both?” A Structural Equation Model Testing Risk and Protective Factors for Social Workers in Refugee and Homeless Aid," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deborah Quilgars & Nicholas Pleace, 2016. "Housing First and Social Integration: A Realistic Aim?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 5-15.
    2. Gibson, Barbara E. & Secker, Barbara & Rolfe, Debbie & Wagner, Frank & Parke, Bob & Mistry, Bhavnita, 2012. "Disability and dignity-enabling home environments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 211-219.
    3. Julia Woodhall-Melnik & Vachan Misir & Vered Kaufman-Shriqui & Patricia O’Campo & Vicky Stergiopoulos & Stephen Hwang, 2015. "The Impact of a 24 Month Housing First Intervention on Participants’ Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference: Results from the At Home / Chez Soi Toronto Site Randomized Controlled Trial," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    4. Hearne Rory & Murphy Mary, 2018. "An absence of rights: Homeless families and social housing marketisation in Ireland," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 66(2), pages 9-31, May.
    5. Kühnle, Daniel & Johnson, Guy & Tseng, Yi-Ping, 2022. "Making It Home? Evidence on the Long-Run Impact of an Intensive Support Program for the Chronically Homeless on Housing, Employment and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 15678, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Keene, Danya E. & Guo, Monica & Murillo, Sascha, 2018. "“That wasn't really a place to worry about diabetes”: Housing access and diabetes self-management among low-income adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 71-77.
    7. Wells, Kathleen & Marcenko, Maureen O., 2011. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Mothers of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 419-423, March.
    8. Deborah Quilgars & Nicholas Pleace, 2016. "Housing First and Social Integration: A Realistic Aim?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 5-15.
    9. Lawrence T Lam & Mary K Lam & Prasuna Reddy & Prudence Wong, 2022. "Factors Associated with Work-Related Burnout among Corporate Employees Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-10, January.
    10. Samuels, Gina Miranda, 2009. "Ambiguous loss of home: The experience of familial (im)permanence among young adults with foster care backgrounds," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1229-1239, December.
    11. Goldshear, J.L. & Kitonga, N. & Angelo, N. & Cowan, A. & Henwood, B.F. & Bluthenthal, R.N., 2023. "“Notice of major cleaning”: A qualitative study of the negative impact of encampment sweeps on the ontological security of unhoused people who use drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    12. Chelli, Mohamed & Himick, Darlene, 2024. "Constructing housing literacy through financial literacy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    13. Nick Kerman & John Sylvestre, 2020. "Service use and recovery among currently and formerly homeless adults with mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(4), pages 389-396, June.
    14. Laurie Buys & Cameron Newton & Nicole Walker, 2021. "The Lived Experience of Residents in an Emerging Master-Planned Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, November.
    15. Chan, Dara V. & Gopal, Sucharita & Helfrich, Christine A., 2014. "Accessibility patterns and community integration among previously homeless adults: A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 142-152.
    16. Rory Coulter & Michael Thomas, 2019. "A new look at the housing antecedents of separation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(26), pages 725-760.
    17. Karine Perreault & Josée Lapalme & Louise Potvin & Mylène Riva, 2022. "“ We’re Home Now ”: How a Rehousing Intervention Shapes the Mental Well-Being of Inuit Adults in Nunavut, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-24, May.
    18. Haorui Wu & Jeff Karabanow & Tonya Hoddinott, 2022. "Building Emergency Response Capacity: Multi-Career-Stage Social Workers’ Engagement with Homeless Sector during the First Two Waves of COVID-19 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, October.
    19. Rosenberg, Alana & Keene, Danya E. & Schlesinger, Penelope & Groves, Allison K. & Blankenship, Kim M., 2021. "“I don't know what home feels like anymore”: Residential spaces and the absence of ontological security for people returning from incarceration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    20. Alaazi, Dominic A. & Masuda, Jeffrey R. & Evans, Joshua & Distasio, Jino, 2015. "Therapeutic landscapes of home: Exploring Indigenous peoples' experiences of a Housing First intervention in Winnipeg," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 30-37.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v9:y:2021:i:3:p:223-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.