Pastoral Care and Counseling with the “Un-Homeless Homeless”: Understanding Cultures of Homelessness
Findings from a study exploring the lived experiences of 16 former residents of a 90-day emergency family shelter program in Los Angeles County offer implications for culturally competent pastoral care and counseling in the context of family homelessness and attend to both the process and content of caregiving.
Abstract
This article presents a subset of findings from a larger study exploring the lived experiences of 16 former residents of a 90-day emergency family shelter program in Los Angeles County. Interpretative phenomenological analysis serves as a qualitative method for understanding the cultural uniqueness of the “un-homeless homeless.” The findings offer implications for culturally competent pastoral care and counseling in the context of family homelessness and attend to both the process and content of caregiving.