Unforgetting the Forgotten: A Life course Perspective on Chronic Houselessness in Rural America

• In Event: When We Unforget Trauma, Developmental Accountability Becomes Possible

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
In examining how developmental risk accumulates across the life course and contributes to housing instability, this study aims to reframe chronic houselessness as cascades of interconnected breakdowns across education, health, justice, and social services rather than individual failure.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We draw on life course and ecological systems theory to situate chronic houselessness within a broader developmental and institutional context. We are grounded in trauma-informed frameworks, particularly those that emphasize institutional marginalization or erasure of challenging developmental pathways. We explore how houselessness is shaped not only by exposure to adversities, but by institutional memory losses, which we view as the failure of systems to track, honor, and respond to life trajectories over time.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
We used the novel Life Graph with Cards (LGCM) to co-construct developmental timelines with chronically houseless adults in a rural US state. This method invites participants to map key events using a card-based visual method. Participants reflect on patterns and meanings the visual representation makes possible. This process allows participants to externalize complex life histories in a safe and empowering format, facilitating narrative coherence and memory recall without requiring linear storytelling.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Our data includes 19 life graph interviews with adults currently or recently experiencing chronic houselessness. We used thematic analysis to explore not only what participants said but how they made meaning of risks, disconnection, and turning points across time. This reflexive approach allowed us to surface how life trajectories unfolded in context, and how systems of care, including schools, either showed up or failed.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Findings reveal that adverse experiences in one system often triggered cascading risks in multiple systems, illustrating that institutional responses can compound vulnerability. Typically treated as discrete or individualized, thee experience reveal systemic blind spots. For many participants, schools functioned not as buffers but as gateways into deeper system involvement. Participants’ trajectories illustrate that housing instability in adulthood rarely results from a single disruption, but through the cumulative risks ignored or dismissed. This forgetting is not accidental; it reflects structural designs that overlook what happens to marginalized children who bounce from one system to another. The findings point to the urgent need for us to remember differently, holding institutions accountable over time.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This study contributes theoretically and methodologically to educational research. It pushes us to consider institutions shaping life trajectories, highlighting how systems’ capacity to track and respond to developmental adversities influences long-term outcomes. It demonstrates the use of LGCM to access complex life-course data that is difficult to elicit through traditional interviews, particularly with highly traumatized people. The study offers insight for educators and policymakers holistic, upstream interventions for those at risk of developmental adversities. By surfacing patterns of systemic amnesia, the paper invites a reorientation of public systems from crisis response to developmental accountability.

Authors

• Siwen Zhang Minero, University of Montana

• Ana Beard, University of Montana - Missoula