Understanding and responding to homeless experiences, identities and cultures
Focussing directly on actual experiences of homeless people, this important book provides:
- opportunities to reflect on how agencies that work with homeless people are set up and run
- guidance to practitioners who work in them, and in social services, probation and housing
- an agenda of action for homeless people
It shows how categorising homeless people into various stereotypes, and making assumptions about their lives, mis-shapes their identities, and mis-shapes the services that we provide, so significantly that it even impacts on workers' own senses of themselves. It shows how focusing on individuals' realities, how they cope with their environments and make sense of their experience help us work together effectively to provide appropriate support.