No place to go : displaced women and their children

Abstract

When a person becomes displaced (homeless), he or she has few options for finding a new residence. One such option is a transitional living program. Transitional living programs provide residence to such persons under the premise that while they reside in such a facility, they will continuously be working in tandem with their case manager and other service providers to once more become self-sufficient when leaving the program.

This thesis examines one transitional living program in the Central Florida area, which I will call the Women's Transitional Living Facility (WTLF). This program serves only women and their children. I analyze the intended function of the WTLF and its actual practices, based on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, with people who serve, have served, or are residing within the Women's Transitional Living Facility. In exploring the actual functioning of this transitional living facility, I investigate the positive and negative effects of the rules in place in this institution, and how they are applied by the staff of the WTLF.

I employ the term "displaced," used in recent publications by some social scientists, as this term does not carry the negative connotations of "homeless." More importantly, it does not deny the population it represents notions of belonging, or of being a member of a secure place. Persons traditionally considered "homeless" may still maintain the sense of a "home" through alternative means such as within a shelter, a flop house, or a tent community (Wardhaugh 1999).

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2003

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Zorn, Elayne

Degree

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree Program

Anthropology

Subjects

Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Sciences; Homeless children -- Florida; Homeless women -- Florida

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0021758

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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