Housing

Life-Path Interview 06

Purpose: Understand how housing stability, instability, independence, conflict, affordability, and loss of housing have affected a person's life.

Approximate ages are fine. The participant may skip any question.

Participant code: ____________________ Date: ____________________

Interviewer: ____________________

□ The participant agrees to have these responses recorded and stored privately for Union support planning. Questions may be skipped. The participant can ask the administrator to review or correct the record, or discuss withdrawal.

1. Earliest Home

What is the first place you remember thinking of as home?

About how old were you? Who lived there with you?

What made it feel safe, unsafe, stable, temporary, comfortable, crowded, predictable, or unpredictable?

Did you expect that you would continue living there?

2. First Housing Change That Mattered

What is the first move or housing change you remember having a real effect on you?

Why did the move happen, as you understood it then?

How much choice did you have?

What changed afterward in school, friendships, family, transportation, safety, privacy, money, work, or community?

3. Housing Independence

When did you first have responsibility for finding or maintaining your own housing?

What was hardest - rent, deposit, ID, references, income, credit, transportation, applications, discrimination, roommates, rules, or something else?

Did anyone teach you how renting or housing systems worked?

4. Stability and Instability

Was there a period when housing became difficult to keep?

What was happening around that time?

What usually caused housing problems?

What helped you remain housed when things were difficult?

5. Turning Points

Was there a housing experience that changed the direction of your life?

Did gaining or losing housing change anything else - work, health, relationships, substance use, legal involvement, or your sense of possibility?

6. Looking Back

What housing support would have made the greatest difference earlier?

What do housing providers misunderstand about people struggling to remain housed?

What makes a place become home rather than simply somewhere to sleep?

7. Participant's Own Interpretation

Finish: "Housing became difficult for me when..."

Finish: "The thing that helps me remain housed is..."

Interviewer Notes

Earliest stable home age: ____________________________________________

First significant housing disruption: ____________________________________________

First independent housing: ____________________________________________

Main barriers mentioned: ____________________________________________

Protective factors: ____________________________________________

Housing turning point: ____________________________________________

Do not collect unnecessary addresses, landlord names, or dispute details unrelated to understanding housing pathways.