About this project

Interested in the report?

• Connect with us

  We are happy to report this project has been completed and the research report available. The executive summary and the final research report are available to be viewed here on our website under research results. 

  If you are interested in learning more about this project or know of a location where you would like to see paper copies of the report available, contact us as 905.721.8668 ext. 2653 or email hannah.scott@ontariotechu.ca.

• The interviews

  This project involved 30 interviews: 15 men and 15 women. The interviews were approximately one hour long; however, some sessions were shorter or longer than this, depending on how much participants were willing to share. Participants were generous with their information and we learned a great deal about which services they value, what services they wish were available to them, and which services' current structures could improve to better meet their needs. To demonstrate appreciation for their time, we offered participants a $40 President's Choice gift card, redeemable at a variety of grocery stores including No Frills, Loblaws and the Real Canadian Superstore.

  If you were one of the participants, we would like to remind you that your privacy will be protected at each stage of the process. The information you provided will remain anonymous and confidential and is linked only to your case ID and the pseudonym you chose. If you have concerns about your interview session or would like to withdraw one or all of your answers, please contact us and we will withdraw your data. We would like for you to know that this will be easier if you contact us before June 2017 when the audio recordings of the interview are to be destroyed; that way we can verify your voice with your interview session. To withdraw specific answers, or fully withdraw from the project, please contact us at:

  • 905.721.8668 ext. 2653
  • hannah.scott@ontariotechu.ca

  If you had any concerns about how the interview session was conducted, or if have any questions regarding your rights as a participant, complaints or adverse events, you may contact the Ethics and Compliance Officer, Research Ethics Board at researchethics@ontariotechu.ca or 905.721.8668 ext. 3693.

• Interview questions

  Below is the interview package containing questions participants were asked. Viewers should be aware that while interviews were structured around the below information, probing and additional questions were asked at the discretion of the interviewer; therefore, interview sessions may have differed slightly from that which is provided below.

  Interview

  Singles at risk: Issues of housing and pathways out of homelessness

  Requirements for participation

  • You must be between the ages of 30 and 55 years of age to participate.
  • You must be living in Durham Region.
  • You must have been living in the same place for at least six months or longer.
  • You must have had at least one incident of homelessness before living at your current location.
  • You  must be single.

  Interview set

  Greeting: 

  We are interested in how people manage their living accommodations day to day. We would like to know more about your housing situation, and what is helpful and not helpful in being able to keep your current place.

  I'm going to start by asking you a few questions about your age and background. We are asking everyone these questions so we can describe the range of different people we interviewed in our study. We are not going to ask your name, so the information will be anonymous.
  1.	Gender	Male Female Transgendered
  Age - What year were you born in? - or - How old are you?		Year of birth Age at time of study
  3.	Do you identify as Aboriginal?	Yes No No answer
  What language do you most often speak at home?			Probe for interviewer: English Other (specify)
  	How long have you lived in Durham Region (Clarify: Durham Region includes Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Scugog, Brock and Clarington)?		Probe for interviewer: City, town, region, province, country.

  Status

  Now we would like to ask you a few questions about your status in Canada.
  Are you a Canadian citizen?	Yes No No answer
  If 'no,' probe:	Are you new to Canada (i.e. have been here for five years or less)? Yes No No answer
  Do you have refugee status? Yes No No answer	Do you have landed immigrant status? Yes No No answer
  Other:	(Please specify)

   

  Are you single, in a relationship (married or common law), separated or divorced?

  Single Married Common law           Separated      Divorced Widowed

   

  Do you have any children?                                                                                   Yes     No

  (Probe: How many?)

  Do you have any pets?                                                                                           Yes     No

  To the best of your memory, how often did you or you and your family move when you were growing up? Do you think it was:

  Never moved            One or two times    Three to five times        Six to 10 times      More than 10 times

   

  Were you ever in some form of protective care before you were 18, such as foster care, group home, etc.?

  Yes No No answer

  Shelter-to-income ratio

  We are interested in knowing about how easy or difficult it is to pay your rent. To do this, we would like to calculate how much money you spend to run your household, and how much income comes into your household. This is called the shelter-income ratio and gives us a good indication of how easy or difficult it is to meet payments for your monthly bills. On average, how much do you pay for:
  Your full rent each month	$
  Do you receive some form of rent/accommodation subsidy?          (Probe, if so how much?) = $	Yes No
  Electricity each month	$
  Gas or oil to heat your home each month	$
  Water each month	$
  Phone each month (Probe: If bundled, get estimate about how much of bundle is for phone only).	$
  How much (not including subsidy mentioned above), on average, is your monthly household income? (Clarify: Household income is all income that comes into the household that you live in from all sources). What are your sources of income?	$

  Education and work:

  What is the highest level of education you have achieved?

  • public/primary school (grades 1 to 6)
  • junior high school (grades 7 and 8)
  • secondary school (grades 9 to 12 or 13)
  • some college or university
  • completed community college certificate or diploma
  • bachelor’s degree
  • master’s degree
  • doctoral degree
  • other (please specify)

  Are you currently in:

  School	Full time                                  Part time
  A training or apprenticeship program	Full time                                  Part time
  Working	Full time                                  Part time

  For those employed full time:

  • How long have you been working at your current place of employment?
  • Do you consider your employment situation to be stable and secure?
  • For those employed full time: Please rank the quality of your non-wage employment benefits/compensation (medical, pension, dental, stock-options): 
    Excellent
    Good       
    Satisfactory        
    Poor        
    Non-existent- I do not have these types of benefits where I work.

  For those employed in part-time work:

  • How many part-time jobs do you have?
  • How many hours a week (on average) do you work?
  • Would you prefer to be employed in a full-time position with full-time hours?
    Yes          No           Don’t know          No answer

  
  Questions - Singles who are at risk of becoming homeless

  Current living situation

  We would like to know more about how you came to be living in this home.

  • How long have you been living in your current living situation?
  • How affordable do you think your living situation is?
    Not at all affordable             Barely affordable                 Affordable     Very affordable
    Can you tell us a bit more about your answer?
  • How suitable is this current living situation to accommodate your needs?
    Not at all suitable                 Barely suitable                     Suitable         Very suitable
    Can you tell us a bit more about your answer?
  • How did you find your current living accommodations? (Probe: Did you hear about it from a friend or relative, did you find it using a housing service, etc.).
  • How many people do you share your home with?
  • Do you share the costs of housing and bills?

  Pathways into homelessness

  • Have you ever been homeless (Clarify: By homeless we mean that you were not able to stay in the same place for more than six months. For example, couch surfing, staying with friends, using shelters, and so on).
  • How many times has this happened over your lifetime?
  • We would like to know a little about the last time this happened. When was that? Can you tell us a bit more about that time and what that looked like? (Probe: Were you working at the time?)
  • Can you tell us a little bit about what you think are the circumstances that led up to that point? (Probe: Did you have any health issues?)

  Pathways out of homelessness

  We are interested in knowing a bit about how you moved from your last incidence of homelessness to where you are now. 

  • Do you like where you currently live?
  • Can you tell us a little bit about what you found the most helpful in finding your current home? (Probe: Housing or employment services, family support, friends, etc.)
  • What was the least helpful in finding your current home? (Probe: Housing or employment services, family support, friends, etc.)
  • What has been helpful to you in managing your current living situation? (Probe: Having friends in the same circumstances, strong family support, access to free food, a steady source of income, no one hassling them, etc.)
  • Is anything threatening your current housing situation? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
  • What additional supports (e.g. friends, family, employment services, housing services, etc.) would you like that you do not have now? What kind of support would make your life easier right now?
  • What advice would you give others who were in your same situation?
• Why did we change the name?
  The Out of Homelessness project was formerly known as Singles at Risk and was changed following the compilation of the interviewees testimonials. Upon reviewing their stories and the shared insights, the research team and our community supporters believed Out of Homelessness: Vulnerability of Unattached Individuals in Durham Region to be a comprehensive title, more reflected of the individuals this study represents. This study respects and deeply appreciates those willing to participate in this research. We are committed to representing them accurately and we believe that this change of title lends itself to this commitment.