This is not living: Chronic homelessness in Melbourne

This report draws on in-depth interviews we conducted with participants from the J2SI evaluation. They all shared with us their experiences of chronic homelessness. They described what it's like to sleep rough, live in squats and stay in rooming houses or crisis accommodation. They talked about how it felt to experience the stigma of homelessness and the impact this had on them. They talked about the barriers and challenges they face on a daily basis and how they deal with them. And, they shared with us their aspirations and hopes for the future. The challenge for us was to organise these stories in a way that preserved their integrity but also highlighted aspects of homelessness that are commonly misrepresented by the media and often misunderstood by the community. The approach we take is to focus on the impact the experience of homelessness has on people's sense of ontological security. In doing this we are acutely aware of imposing order on what is an extremely varied experience, but the idea of ontological security nonetheless provides a useful lens through which the underlying processes that lead to and perpetuate chronic homelessness can be better understood.