Creating livable lives: A qualitative exploration of life after homelessness

The transition from homelessness to a housed life involves complex psychosocial processes that cannot be reduced to the mere fact of securing accommodation. While Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) approaches have shown success in achieving housing stability, less attention has been paid to how people construct meaningful lives after securing permanent housing. Through field observations and in-depth interviews conducted over multiple time points, we developed a relational framework synthesising recognition theory, feminist care ethics, and Indigenous scholarship to analyse participants' experiences. Our findings reveal how neighbourhood disadvantage, trauma histories, and social stigma continue to shape participants' possibilities for living well, even after they achieve housing stability. Participants described profound existential challenges, boredom, isolation, and limited opportunities for meaningful engagement, which often triggered returns to substance use and exacerbated mental health issues. Despite these constraints, participants actively sought to create livable lives by establishing safety, forging knots of connections across human/non-human boundaries, and seeking opportunities to contribute their knowledge and skills to others. These findings challenge service models prioritising personal transformation while overlooking the nuanced ways formerly homeless people engage in collective 'worlding' practices. This research suggests that effective support along pathways out of homelessness must extend beyond mere housing provision and clinical services to facilitate meaningful community participation and reciprocal relationships. Rather than gauging success through housing retention alone, approaches should foster opportunities for contribution that celebrate interdependence and recognise the valuable perspectives that people with lived experience bring to community-building efforts.