Interactional barriers to exiting homelessness: an ethnographic study of a homeless hostel

This thesis advances our understanding as to why some people become stuck in 'this place'
(a homeless hostel) and places like it. Whilst the existing literature highlights 'barriers' to
'exiting' homelessness, these are often oversimplified and dichotomised as being either
structural (e.g., a lack of affordable housing) or individual (e.g., addiction). Instead, this
thesis illustrates how the barriers to exiting homeless hostels are rooted within the
interaction order of institutions (Goffman, 1961; 1983). It achieves this by taking an
ethnographic approach to life at Holbrook House - the English homeless hostel upon which
this thesis is based - and by observing how deeply-rooted barriers play out in day-to-day
interactions. Fieldwork took place between January 2020 and November 2022 and involved
participant observation, online semi-structured interviews, online timeline interviews, and
in person unstructured interviews.
This research finds that homeless hostels are one point amidst a broader 'institutional web,'
a series of institutions which are interactionally interconnected by members of the hostel.
Residents at Holbrook House just happen to reside at 'this place' at this time, though often
bounce between an array of other institutions, including prisons and detox facilities. Whilst
'this place' (or these places) may aim to normalise those who enter, 'hyper inclusion' i.e.,
forcible inclusion within an array of bureaucracies, solidifies their relative abnormality when
a normative frame is employed. By encapsulating the viewpoints of both staff and resident
teams, the polyphonic voice within this thesis demonstrates how all hostel members must
contend with interactional challenges, and must therefore learn to play the institutional
game. For instance, when faced with a series of ordinary institutional troubles, the staff
practice 'learning not to see.' In contrast to the dominant 'pathways' perspective, getting
out of the hostel in a 'positive' way, or being stuck in 'this place,' are both shown be
interactional accomplishments.