Souls in Extremis: Enacting Processes of Recovery from Homelessness Among Older African American Women

In a midwestern city of the USA, the authors implemented the Leaving Homelessness Intervention Research Project—and its eight subprojects—to further understand homelessness as experienced by older minority women, develop intervention strategies to facilitate the movement of the participants out of homelessness, and illuminate the women’s recovery process. After reviewing the social issue of homelessness among older African American women in the USA, and offering a framework on recovery and qualitative themes of recovery among participants involved in the Telling My Story subproject, the authors present a four-factor model of recovery-focused practice. The model reflects two recovery paradigms: one that is responsive to the negative consequences people experience as a result of their exposure to extreme situations, such as homelessness, and a proactive one in which assistance is designed to help people in recovery advance their own self-development and move forward their process of individuation.