Families’ experiences of housing and housing supports within the context of parental incarceration

Rates of parental incarceration and family homelessness continue to rise in the United States, and many families experience both of these risks concurrently. Both parental incarceration and homelessness independently relate to negative outcomes for children and families, with numerous studies documenting families’ experiences of each risk independently. Despite families’ increased risk for experiencing co-occurring parental incarceration and housing instability, little is known about families’ experiences within this complex context of risk. This qualitative study explores currently incarcerated parents’ and their children's at-home caregivers’ perceptions of their experiences of homelessness and housing instability during the year prior to the parent's current incarceration. Through semi-structured interviews with 16 jailed parents and caregivers, families describe their perception of their experience for themselves and for their children and identify challenges and support they encountered. Using multiperspectival interpretative phenomenological analysis, emerging group experiential themes clustered within four overarching constructs: jailed parent/caregiver-focused, child-focused, family-level, and exosystem-level experiences. Overall, families’ descriptions capture the complexity of their cascading risk experiences, with impacts permeating through the family system. Implications for programming and policies addressing parental incarceration and homelessness are addressed.