“Everybody out there in the real world is one paycheck away from being homeless”: job loss and housing precarity among people experiencing homelessness

Abstract:

The United States has fewer labor protections and wage guarantees than most wealthy industrialized nations; thus, workers can fall into economic hardship by the loss of employment, reduction in work hours, or work-related accidents or injuries. Even when fully employed, low wage workers typically face substantial rent burdens, which place them at risk for being evicted from their homes and ultimately falling into homelessness. This paper examines the role of unemployment and underemployment in increasing the risk of homelessness and the ways in which job loss precipitated homelessness. The results are based on the qualitative findings of a large mixed method representative study of homelessness in California (USA). Occupational settings impacted workers' vulnerability to job loss and subsequent homelessness, particularly in the context of illness and injury, the societal impact of the COVID pandemic, and the role of probation and parole as barriers to steady employment. The resulting pathways from job loss to homelessness could be either sudden or gradual. Using data from in-depth interviews, we describe the characteristics of occupational settings that left workers vulnerable to unemployment-related job loss and subsequent homelessness and offer policy suggestions for addressing these issues.

Read the paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10530789.2025.2538312