“I just needed someone to believe in me.” A qualitative analysis of youths’ experiencing homelessness perspectives of a housing first intervention

Abstract

Housing first interventions are commonly considered best practice when addressing homelessness among adults. However, to date to there is limited research exploring housing first interventions with youth experiencing homelessness. Homeless youth are a distinctly different population than homeless adults, thus housing first interventions will need to consider the unique needs of homeless youth. To better understand how homeless youth may respond to a housing first intervention, the current study utilized qualitative interviews with 17 youth who had recently participated in a 6-month housing first intervention. Overall, youth reported generally positive experiences and believed the intervention had led to improvements in their lives. Similar to research with homeless adults, it appears that by being provided housing youth were able to move out of survival mode, which led to their feelings of self-improvement.