A DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF HOMELESS-DOMICILE TRANSITIONS

Using data from a longitudinal study in Alameda County California, thi s paper examines the relevance of the individual deficit and the insti tutional resource frameworks in understanding homeless-domicile transi tions of female family heads, single women and single men. The study e mploys two analytic strategies. First, by pooling data from the three groups, we examine the extent to which variables derived from the two frameworks account far cross-group differences in homeless-domicile tr ansitions. Second, by conducting separate analyses for the three subgr oups, we explore whether the effects of individual deficit and institu tional resource factors vary according to homeless individuals' Bender and family status. Our pooled sample analysis provides more support f or the institutional resource than for the individual deficit framewor k. Our findings from within-subsample analyses, however, suggest that both individual deficit and institutional resource variables are linke d to homeless-domicile transitions of the three groups. The absence of consistent effects of individual deficit and institutional resource v ariables for exits from and returns to homeless spells, as well as acr oss the three groups, points to the possible interactions between the two frameworks in affecting homeless-domicile transitions.