Understanding Experiences of Street Addiction Among People Experiencing Homelessness: A Qualitative Research Study

Homelessness is a global concern and there is no sufficient information on the question of why some people repeatedly return to living and hanging out on the street even after rehabilitation attempts and giving them a place to stay and live. The main goal of the present study was to understand the draw of street life experiences of people experiencing homelessness through the framework of street addiction. The analytic framework of “street addiction,” developed in a previous study, parallels the criteria of behavioral addiction in DSM-5. Using an abductive-phenomenological strategy, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 people with chronic patterns of homelessness who had a background in substance use and with 3 support workers who worked with them. All the participants described experiences of severe street addiction and attraction to life on the streets. Their experiences matched the criteria of behavioral addiction and the theoretical model of street addiction. We recommend gaining an in-depth understanding of street addiction by conducting further studies to develop therapeutic, rehabilitative, and harm reduction responses to people experiencing homelessness.