Homeless careers: pathways in and out of homelessness

The central argument of this report is that homelessness should be conceptualised as a 'career process'. Social scientists use the term 'career' to refer to the transitional stages involved in the development of any form of biographical identity (Goffman 1961; Becker 1963; Snow and Anderson 1993; Hutson and Liddiard 1994). The notion of a 'homeless career' draws attention to the process of becoming homeless as people pass through various phases before they develop a self-identity as a homeless person. The homeless career also highlights the factors that influence how people move from one stage of homelessness to another.