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Kimberly Curran
LIS 662
Research Paper on a Group

Information Needs of Parents Experiencing Homelessness

Every year, millions of people within the United States experience homelessness for
some period of time. Families, particularly single-parent families with young children, make up a
significant percentage of this population. A study conducted in 1993 found that of the potentially
three million people experiencing homelessness at a given time, approximately thirty-eight
percent were families, a number that was only growing (Dail, 1993). Though it is difficult to
gather exact information about this highly mobile population, especially given that some families
may have the opportunity to live with extended family or friends rather than utilize shelters and
other resources (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2011), the trend towards the number
of families experiencing homelessness increasing each year seems clear.

The main causes of homelessness are poverty and lack of access to affordable housing
(National Coalition for the Homeless, 2007). Thirty-four percent of single-parent families in the
U.S. are currently living below the poverty line, with the minimum wage such that even a full-
time employee cannot earn enough to support themselves, much less their families (National
Center on Family Homelessness, 2011). The cost of housing has far surpassed the salary of the
average employee, and federal housing assistance can take months or even years to provide
positive results (2011). Another leading contributor to homelessness, especially among women,
is domestic violence and the ways in which it may block a fleeing individual from safely
accessing personal resources (2011).

Studies have consistently shown non-white families to be disproportionately more likely

to experience homelessness. A recent report published on behalf of several U.S government
agencies revealed that nearly half of such families are African American, while approximately
forty percent are white, with Hispanic and multiracial families making up the next largest
segments (Policy Statement on Meeting the Needs of Families with Young Children
Experiencing and At Risk of Homelessness, 2016). The vast majority of families living in
shelters – nearly eight percent, according to one report – are single-parent families consisting of
a mother in her twenties with young children (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2011).
The mother is unlikely to be highly educated, or to receive financial support from the children’s
father (Nunez, 2001).

While it is would be easy to make generalizations about the roles of the father in the
average family experiencing homelessness, it must be considered that very little research has
focused on the parenting involvement of homeless fathers, or on the unique challenges facing
male-led single-parent families in shelter environments (Paquette & Bassuk, 2009). For instance,
due to the prevalence of female-led single-parent families, many resources are geared toward this
demographic, to the point that some family shelters will not accept adult men, which may
actually be a contributing factor to forced family separations (2009). These added difficulties
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coupled with a lack of formal information make it difficult to draw concrete conclusions about
fathers experiencing homelessness.

Information Settings

Parents experiencing homelessness will have varied places they look to for information,
but the shelter environment may be the most readily accessible. Family shelters provide direct or
indirect access to assistance programs and other resources, and may even have caseworkers or
other social services staff on site to work with residents. While these in-house resources are
generally appreciated by sheltered parents, it has been noted that they are rarely comprehensive,
and may be particularly lacking in educational programming and materials for children (Hinton
& Cassel, 2013). Similarly, many shelters maintain small libraries for the use of their residents,
but unless the organization has funding set aside for maintaining its collection, it will likely rely
on donations that could be outdated or in poor condition (Terrile, 2016).

The shelter environment itself may work against learning and accessing necessary
information, especially for parents. Shelters often have tight restrictions on many aspects of the
residents’ living situation, including their scheduling, behavior, and enrollment in assistance
programs, and the strain this places on parents caring for young children can leave little time or
energy for additional information seeking (Paquette & Bassuk, 2009). This parental fear of
losing access to housing services can be compounded by staff who are overzealous in ensuring
parents and children are abiding by behavioral and disciplinary rules, failing to cultivate trust
between themselves and sheltered families (Mayberry, Shinn, Benton, & Wise, 2014).

The public library is another easily accessible source of information for parents
experiencing homelessness. As one of the only remaining indoor locations where a person, with
or without their children, can spend significant amounts of time free of charge, the library has
been described as “a sanctuary as well as a place in which to engage in activities around literacy
and learning” (Terrile, 2016, p. 133). Individuals may turn to the public library for help
accessing support services, as many libraries, particularly in urban centers, have recognized the
role they play as social-services-adjacent information organizations (Giesler, 2017).

The American Library Association has called on public libraries in policy statements to
strive to remove barriers that limit the access people experiencing homelessness have to their
services, and some libraries have responded with proactive changes to their policies that better
accommodate the needs of this population (Giesler, 2017). However, many locations still have
policies that would appear to directly target homeless patrons (2017). This fact, when coupled
with policy enforcement’s heavy reliance on the judgement of staff who may not have been
educated to work effectively with this group, may cause these patrons to feel unwelcome in the
library (Bardoff, 2015).

Public libraries also offer free and open access to computers and Wi-Fi, which can help
facilitate the use of the internet as a source of information. Many individuals experiencing
homelessness, though they may not have the financial means to maintain a residence, still have
access to phones and other devices capable of accessing the internet (Baker, 2016). For these
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reasons, online resources are also a likely source of information, especially for parents who may
not have immediate access to social services staff.

Information Needs

Parents who are experiencing homelessness have a number of information needs, and
those needs are constantly changing and unique to each family’s structure, situation, and
resources. Though each family’s circumstances and information needs are different, the available
support services remain largely the same, however. Many of the common problems for which
sheltered parents may seek information have been recorded in previous studies.

According to one study, some of the most commonly reported information needs of
families living in shelter environments were those related to finances, housing, employment,
childcare, and maintaining healthy relationships with one’s children (Hersberger, 2001).
Determining which of these needs takes precedence in the search for information is complicated,
however, by the fact that no single problem these parents face exists in a vacuum. Many
assistance programs, for instance, require that the participant have some form of employment,
which necessarily requires that they have reliable transportation and access to childcare, which
they cannot attain without access to assistance (Mayberry, Shinn, Benton, & Wise, 2014). The
overlapping nature of these issues greatly increases the complexity of the information needed to
resolve them.

The complicated nature of the social service system and parents’ need for assistance in
navigating it is a common theme within the literature. Housing and social services have ever-
changing requirements that can conflict with one another, and the lack of easily accessible
instruction on the process creates unnecessary confusion and uncertainty (Mayberry, Shinn,
Benton, & Wise, 2014). Reliance on a caseworker with whom a parent may not have had the
opportunity to build a rapport can also lead to increased stress and frustration for parents
struggling to get back on their feet (Paquette & Bassuk, 2009).

For families experiencing homelessness, the educational needs of both parents and
children may be set aside until more basic needs, such as housing and food, are met (Terrile,
2016). For families residing in shelters, however, information about and access to educational
support remains a frequently articulated need (Hersberger, 2001). The traumatic nature of a life
change as dramatic as the transition to homelessness may also negatively impact students’
academic performance, prompting parents to seek out information about school counseling
programs (Hinton & Cassel, 2013). Simply enrolling children in school can be complicated by an
inability to supply the necessary documentation, and a lack of information about what
documentation is necessary, how new copies can be acquired, and at what expense (Grothaus,
Lorelle, Anderson, & Knight, 2011).

Information Solutions

The information needs of parents experiencing homelessness are so widely varied that
having the ability to locate reliable sources of information can itself be considered an
information need. Libraries and other community resources on and offline often work to
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consolidate disparate sources and simplify the information-seeking process. However, databases
and libraries are widely overlooked as primary sources of information by parents in this
demographic (Hersberger, 2001). Working to raise awareness about information services and
programs through outreach and interagency collaboration is one way to begin resolving this
problem.

As “agencies whose mission and function are not social services-related, but operate in
that capacity,” where unhoused people can spend their daytime hours and librarians are often
called on to provide information in a similar way to social workers, public libraries are uniquely
situated within their communities (Giesler, 2017, p. 188). By collaborating with local service
providers, libraries can begin to develop programming and services tailored to the particular
needs of a population (Bardoff, 2015). This can be facilitated by working to connect liaisons for
social services and other organizations with libraries and their staff (Terrile, 2016), possibly
going so far as to have social workers provide direct consultation within the library for a period
of time each week (Bardoff, 2015). Uncertainty and confusion about the availability of services
and the requirements for enrollment are common problems for parents experiencing
homelessness with which library staff are often not equipped to assist, and having a trained social
worker available, even in a limited capacity, would greatly reduce the stress on the parent of
attempting to locate and access accurate information (Mayberry, Shinn, Benton, & Wise, 2014).

Children’s educational needs are another common area of anxiety for this population.
Early childhood educators and other professionals, such as children’s librarians, can play
important roles in encouraging struggling families while helping children succeed academically.
As “early childhood programs are among the very few safe and nurturing places that homeless
parents visit regularly,” these professionals have the opportunity to move beyond the surface of
the classroom or story time hour and form strong relationships with the families they serve which
will allow them to develop better, more personalized resources for those families (Swick, 2009,
p. 186). Outreach to schools and classrooms also has the chance to reach children who are
technically experiencing homelessness, but are living with friends or family rather than in a
shelter environment (Terrile, 2016). By conducting both these and broader outreach efforts,
libraries and staff can raise awareness of the services they have to offer and begin to break down
the barriers that might prevent or discourage families from engaging with them.

Barriers to Information

There are a number of barriers that hinder or directly prevent parents experiencing
homelessness from accessing the information they need. Assistance programs and other services
have complex documentation and identification requirements that can change from program to
program, and acquiring the necessary copies or replacements of these documents can come with
an unexpected and unmanageable expense (Grothaus, Lorelle, Anderson, & Knight, 2011). This,
coupled with a lack of reliable access to transportation, can cause difficulties with enrolling
children in school and families in shelters or transitional housing, without which parents may not
have ready access to social workers or other assistance with navigating the social service system.

While public libraries may try to fill this gap as information resources for parents
experiencing homelessness, many, if not most, have policies in place that can greatly restrict the
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services people in this demographic may access. For instance, libraries often require photo
identification and proof of address in order to sign up for a library card (Terrile, 2016). It is not
uncommon for public libraries to have other policies in place relating to personal hygiene,
sleeping on the premises, or regulating the number or size of bags a patron is allowed to bring
into the building, among others (Giesler, 2017). While these policies might be justified as
protecting the security and comfort of patrons in general, it’s not difficult to see how they would
appear to unfairly target individuals struggling with poverty or homelessness.

Potentially discriminatory policies are not the only barrier to accessing services at public
libraries and other information organizations. Even if all policies have been drafted with
inclusive and compassionate intentions, a lack of professional development opportunities or
diversity training on the part of staff can create an environment where parents experiencing
homelessness may feel judged or uncomfortable (Terrile, 2016). Bias regarding homelessness on
the part of library staff is often based on implicit prejudice and a reluctance to recognize and
admit to ignorance as to how to address the needs of this group (Mi, Stefaniak, & Afonso, 2014).
Library and social services staff must work to recognize and counter their own preconceptions in
order to ensure they are treating every client with fairness and respect.

Social Networks

Outside of social services and public information resources like libraries, parents who are
experiencing homelessness rely on the social support of family and friends to meet information
needs. Social support can be defined as “a network in which the individual perceives love and
care from others, such as family, relatives, and friends, and can receive guidance for help with
daily tasks” (Schrag & Schmidt-Tieszen, 2014, p. 316). According to Schrag’s study, parents
placed emphasis on trust when determining which relationships within their network to turn to
for support; parents who did not feel supported by or able to trust their case manager would
instead turn to family members for support, despite the fact that the case manager might have
been in a better position to assist them (2014).

Though it could be assumed that parents experiencing homelessness have smaller or less
robust social support networks than housed parents, this does not seem to be the case. Instead, it
has been found that parents experiencing homelessness have support networks equivalent to that
of housed parents, but have exhausted the large-scale support their friends and family are able to
provide (Goodman, 1991). While their social networks may not be able provide them with
housing and significant financial assistance, they can often still be relied on for emotional
support and assistance with smaller tasks like childcare or transportation (1991).

Parents, regardless of their housing status, generally appear to maintain and rely on social
networks for emotional and informational support. Families who lose their housing but are able
to move in with family or friends may not be accounted for by the standard statistics, or have
dedicated access to case managers and others services that are provided by family shelters and
housing programs (Hinton & Cassel, 2013). Without direct access to formal sources of
information, and given the lack of common knowledge relating to the services provided by other
information resources like public libraries, it follows that parents facing this situation would rely
that much more heavily on their family and friends for information and support.
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References

Baker, L. A. (2016). Many Paths, One Destination. Journal of Housing & Community
Development, 73(3), 6-12.

Bardoff, C. (2015). Homelessness and the Ethics of Information Access. Serials Librarian,
69(3/4), 347-360.

Dail, P. W. (1993). Homelessness in America. Marriage & Family Review, 19(1/2), 55-75.

Giesler, M. A. (2017). A place to call home?: A qualitative exploration of public librarians'

response to homelessness. Journal of Access Services, 14(4), 188-214.

Goodman, L. (1991). The Relationship Between Social Support and Family Homelessness: A
Comparison Study of Homeless and Housed Mothers. Journal of Community Psychology,
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Grothaus, T., Lorelle, S., Anderson, K., & Knight, J. (2011). Answering the Call: Facilitating
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