| Historically, women veterans were ignored, under investigated, and overrepresented among homeless women. There is a paucity of studies addressing the issue of homelessness among women veterans. Furthermore, extant studies vaguely depict issues impacting homeless women veterans. Little is known about actions that women veterans are taking to end homelessness or what homeless women veterans require to end homelessness. Current studies indicated that women veterans are increasingly young, more ethnically diverse, and have fewer resources than previous women veterans. A basic interpretative qualitative study was conducted, utilizing semi-structured interviews of six homeless women veterans in order to interpret and understand (a) what being homeless means to homeless women veterans, (b) how homeless women veterans become homeless, (c) what actions homeless women veterans are taking to end homelessness, and (d) what homeless women veterans perceive they need to extricate themselves from homelessness. Issues impacting homeless women veterans include (a) betrayal trauma, (b) rape, (c) exposure to combat artillery and missiles, (d) lack of social supports, (e) substance abuse, (f) mental illness, (g) homelessness, (h) premature discharges, and (i) ineligibility for VHA benefits. The emergent theme-pervasive loss was interwoven in and across each interview relative to the categories: (a) social supports, (b) trauma, (c) VHA benefits, (d) loss of one or both parents, (e) mental illness, and (f) feeling unsafe. Despite a myriad of troubling experiences the participants were hopeful. Only one participant accepted full responsibility for being homeless, while the remaining participants attributed being homeless to circumstances outside of themselves. The core category linking all other categories is betrayal and ineligibility trigger PTSD. Pervasive loss triggers PTSD. Pervasive loss stems from utter despair, hope, and denial and is ultimately the meaning of homelessness to the six participants in this study. |
