Abstract
This book’s subtitle captures its real focus: the phenomenon of adolescents who live “doubled-up.” These youths are not homeless in the traditional sense, rather this group includes those who are “sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason” (p. 2). This definition falls under the purview of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which was passed in 1987 in an effort to protect the educational rights and prospects of members of this at-risk population. Students who live doubled up are thought to experience the same kinds of disadvantages stemming from their living situations as students with no stable residence, despite the fact that many of them reject the label “homeless.”
Ronald Hallett undertakes an in-depth but small-scale qualitative study of doubled-up youth in order to better understand the interplay between their residential status and educational experiences. Importantly, Hallett’s approach emphasizes differences between the four youths he interviews who share this living condition, drawing the reader’s attention to the heterogeneity within this little-understood population. He uses a risk and resilience framework to explore how these adolescents define their environments, and how these definitions in turn shape their “educational perceptions” and high school participation.
Why this book, and why now? According to Hallett, youth living doubled-up constitute more than half of the homeless youth population, and this type of arrangement often precedes other forms of residential instability. In addition, more than three-quarters of individuals who lose their homes to foreclosure end up living under one roof with family or friends. Given the current state of the U.S. economy, this issue will only become more salient, making this contribution to the homelessness literature particularly timely.