In the last twenty years, organizations and service providers that cater to the homeless have noted a change in their clientele: Increasingly, entire families are looking for places to sleep. Extant research tells us little about the lives of homeless families and the processes by which people attempt to work their way back into stable housing. This doctoral dissertation research begins with the assumptions that homelessness is part of a broader struggle that families engage in to endure poverty, and that social networks and community dynamics are an important part of this strategy. The project involves a longitudinal study of family homelessness, Census data and policy archives to examine (1) how race, class, gender and local policies impact upon networks, (2) how parents of homeless families manipulate and re-structure their networks to negotiate structural arrangements, and (3) how both of the above impact upon the role of networks on social well-being as time goes on. The results of this project will have significant scientific and policy related implications. First, they will increase our understanding of homelessness beyond its mere onset. Second, they will promote efforts to develop more dynamic conceptions of how structures and networks operate. Finally, the results will inform us about the impact of a homeless policy now being implemented at the federal level.
