"By including a sense of time it becomes evident that rooflessness is a process, rather than a single one-off event, and that this process begins earlier than existing studies suggest." Megan Ravenhill, author of
Culture of Homelessness, says this in response to an earlier study that suggests that homelessness comes from a specific decision made that is made in the latter parts of someone's life. In Ravenhill's response, she uses the term
route-map to describe the "interrelated circumstances that lead to homelessness". She also states that "the importance of time and the age the person first experiances homelessness becomes evident." With young homeless people, the route is usually simple, while with older it is usually very complex.
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| *This is an example of a route-map taken from Ravenhill's research* |
There are also predictors to homelessness. For example, being bullied or lack of friends. The importance comes from the accumulation of triggers.
This proves to me and everyone I interviewed in Chattanooga wrong. I thought single factors resulted in homelessness, but in actuality it is a gathering and accumulation of multiple factors usually depending on age. This was an eye opener to me and I hope it was for you too.
