Homeless in God’s Country

An Exploratory Study of Coping Strategies of Homeless Adults in the Upper Peninsula

A homeless man called this tent home in woods near Marquette during the winter of 2008

A team of researchers from the Department of Sociology and Social Work, including NMU senior sociology major, Francois Vachon, are undertaking a qualitative study on coping and survival strategies of homeless adults in the Upper Peninsula.  Francois is working with lead investigators, Dr. Tim Hilton and Professor Cornell DeJong from the social work program.  Although the homeless may not be as obvious to the public in the relatively small communities of the U.P. as they are in larger metropolitan area, they are still present.  Informal contact with area homeless and experience with a local, volunteer homeless program, Room at the Inn, lead the researchers to design a more formal project.

According to Dr. Hilton, this project will examine coping mechanisms among homeless adults in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The goal is to understand how adults find shelter and food in different seasons and to identify  patterns of accessing various forms of assistance from families, friends and social service providers.  Anecdotal evidence suggests homeless adults within rural areas and small towns, especially those who are chronically homeless, develop unique survival tactics, including: camping during warmer months and moving between friends' and families' residences during other times, living out of cars and frequenting retail stores that are open all night during especially cold nights, and, for those receiving disability benefits, living in hotel rooms when their checks arrive and then living outdoors or in "drop-in" shelters (often run by churches) when their money runs out at the end of each month.  Still, coping mechanisms are not well documented or fully understood by policymakers, social service providers and social science researchers.

Senior sociology major, Francois Vachon (right) discusses the research project with Dan Lancour, Director of Janzen House in Marquette

 The research plan calls for recruiting subjects from area homeless shelters and through the use of a technique  known as “snowball sampling” whereby participants help locate other participants through their informal networks.  Subjects will be recruited from several areas across the Upper Peninsula, including: Marquette, Escanaba, and Iron Mountain.  Understanding more about this growing population may help social service providers and policymakers better understand the unique needs of this population and design appropriate interventions.  Two foci of this research will be individuals' ongoing relationship with family members and others within their social networks, and their patterns of social service usage. 

Participants will be asked questions related to their methods of coping with homelessness.  Specific topics that will be addressed include: any income they receive, methods of finding shelter (whether with family and friends, shelters, living in automobiles, squatting, or camping outside), ways of securing food, and social service utilization.

As a member of the research team, Francois is helping to conduct the literature review, to design the interview schedule, to conduct background interviews with local service providers and to lead interviews of the participants.