Keeping a safe and stable roof overhead is increasingly difficult for the approximately 20 million low-income families in the United States (Urban Institute, n.d.; U.S. Census, 2016). Faced with rising housing costs, limited... [ view full abstract ]
Keeping a safe and stable roof overhead is increasingly difficult for the approximately 20 million low-income families in the United States (Urban Institute, n.d.; U.S. Census, 2016). Faced with rising housing costs, limited affordable housing options, and decreased public investment in affordable housing (Housing Assistance Council, 2012), low-income families develop strategies to find and secure housing. The purpose of this study is to better understand those housing strategies. Although previous research has focused on the housing strategies of minority, single mothers in urban settings (Clark, Burton, & Flippen, 2011; Heflin, London, & Scott, 2011; Hernandez, 2016), research focused on the housing strategies of rural families is limited. This study fills a gap by examining the housing strategies of white, largely married, low-income families in a rural context.
Analyzing existing ethnographic data from the Growing Up Mobile in a Rural Trailer Park study (MacTavish, 2007), we examined the housing strategies of 12 low-income families living in three rural trailer parks. Field notes from interviews with mothers and observations of families provide detailed information about family and residential histories across early adulthood through midlife. The life course tenet of linked lives (Elder, 1998) guided this examination, directing attention to the ways that a family’s housing strategies are shaped by family members’ interdependence with one another. Findings from this study show how critical relationships and planning are to families’ housing strategies, and highlight both the benefits and consequences of these efforts. For example, role flexibility and teamwork between spouses allowed families to take advantage of opportunities to improve their current housing situations and work toward long-term housing goals. Despite making improvements in their housing situations within the context of a trailer park, most families’ housing stability remained precarious as the enduring need to implement housing strategies added to family stress. This study highlights the immense effort that low-income families put forth just to try to meet a basic housing need. In a social climate that increasingly promotes private solutions to housing issues and offers decreased affordable housing options in rural contexts, this study adds support to the call for a larger public commitment to affordable, adequate housing for all families.
