When I went into the first program, I felt like shit. I felt like I was nothing. Like I was a nobody, like I was homeless on the street. I never felt like killing myself but I felt like… it wouldn't be any different… From those depths, I found myself.
—Alejandro, 19 year old unhoused Latino male
Economic inequality in the U.S. is at an all-time high. Young adults are especially vulnerable to poverty and homelessness, with between 750,000 to 2 million young people in the U.S. experiencing an episode of homelessness each year (Ammerman et al., 2004). In addition to the hardship of material deprivation and daily survival, these youth contend with negative public perceptions that see them as criminal, deficient, and pathological.
How do homeless youth make sense of their experiences and negotiate their identities in the face of such stigma? Studying the stories of these young people is an important step in understanding how class-based inequality affects psychological processes and how marginalized youth make sense of and speak back to the injustices they face.
In an article recently published in Qualitative Psychology, Toolis & Hammack (2015) (PDF, 135KB)opens in new window present four case studies drawn from in-depth interviews with 11 homeless youth in the U.S. cities of Chicago and Seattle. The stories of Alejandro, Melanie, Orion, and Lincoln each express themes of struggle and loss, illustrating the impact of poverty and exclusion on their life outcomes.
Nevertheless, rather than adopt a devalued sense of self, the youth in this study actively struggled to find self-worth, community, and even hope in the margins. Their stories rejected the claim that poverty is the result of individual failure and fault by highlighting the inequality and disadvantage they faced. At the same time, they rejected the notion that they were passive victims of circumstance, in need of treatment or regulation. Rather than accept the negative stories told about them or let themselves be defined solely by their circumstances, the youth in this study demonstrated an affirmation of their knowledge, experiences, and identities as valuable.
This study contributes to the small but growing number of narrative studies addressing issues of marginalization. These findings suggest that stigmatizing narratives told about homeless youth are rarely aligned with the reality and diversity of the narratives told by homeless youth, who may see their circumstances, needs, and assets quite differently.
This research advocates for the need to conceptualize homeless youth as valuable sources of insight into the barriers they face and the strategies they use to survive, and to engage with youth as partners in creating social change.
Citation:
Toolis, E. E., & Hammack, P. L. (2015). The lived experience of homeless youth: A narrative approach. Qualitative Psychology, 2(1), 50–68. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/qup0000019
Note: This article is in the Core of Psychology topic area. View more articles in the Core of Psychology topic area.