Exploring Experiences of Trauma for Older Adults Across the Trajectory of Unhoused to Housed
Abstract
Older adults are increasingly being forced into homelessness, a tragic consequence of structural violence. During homelessness, older adults disproportionately experience trauma. To explore this experience, I conducted two studies: 1) a systematic review and meta-aggregation designed to address the question: what are the experiences of trauma for older adults with lived and living experiences of homelessness in existing interdisciplinary literature?; and 2) a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews guided by the question: how do older adults experience trauma across the transition to housing following homelessness?. Findings indicated that older adults experience homelessness as deeply traumatic. For some older adults, homelessness disrupted their sense of ontological security, leading to changed views of themselves and their situated reality. The transition to housing represents an opportunity to support older adults to regain a sense of ontological security, however my findings indicate that this is the case only if older adults are supported to access safe, deeply affordable, accessible housing.