Pathways into Adult Homelessness

This article has two aims. First, from all the diversity and complexity of homeless people’s lives, we identify five ideal typical pathways into adult homelessness, using a modified version of the analytical scheme proposed by Johnson (2006). The pathways are called ‘housing crisis’, ‘family breakdown’, ‘substance abuse’, ‘mental health’ and ‘youth to adult’. We also distinguish between homeless ‘biographies’ and homeless ‘pathways’. A homeless biography is an account of an individual’s journey through homelessness, whereas a homeless pathway is an analytical construction which maps an ideal typical route through homelessness.