Housing Affordability, Stress And Single Mothers: Pathway To Homelessness

Authors

Elizabeth A. Mulroy, Boston University
Terry S. Lane, Boston University

Abstract

Examining the research literature in housing, planning, and the social sciences, this paper argues that the housing crisis of the 1980s spawned a new environmental stress, housing affordability, which has had devastating consequences for economically vulnerable single mothers and their children. A conceptual framework is developed that depicts how the housing affordability dilemma generates a pathway to homelessness beset by four pinchpoints: a resource squeeze that precipitates loss of permanent housing; residential mobility that destabilizes families; discrimination in the housing market that constrains housing choices; and multiple stressors that demoralize a fragile family system. Implications of these findings are discussed, including attention to housing problems of single mothers in both social policy and direct practice arenas.

Recommended Citation

Mulroy, Elizabeth A. and Lane, Terry S. (1992) "Housing Affordability, Stress And Single Mothers: Pathway To Homelessness," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 19: Iss. 3, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.2030
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol19/iss3/4