Background: Despite advances in research on street youth, many aspects remain unexplored, especially for specific groups such as youths who are queer or refugees. The increasing housing shortage, economic crises, and global refugee movements have exacerbated the situation of these young people. There is an urgent need to examine their circumstances in detail in order to develop a better understanding of the factors and mechanisms that influence their situation.
Project aim: The aim of the project is to understand the causes and reasons for homelessness among young people, their decision to leave home, the course of their lives on the street, and the support structures they use from the perspective of those affected.
Research questions: How do street youth experience and interpret their path to homelessness? What experiences do they have on the street and how do these shape their everyday lives?
How do their social relationships develop, especially with other people on the street, in friendships, partnerships, and with family? Which support structures do they use, and which do they find useful or not useful? What strategies do they pursue to leave the street as the center of their lives?
Methods: Qualitative data is collected using problem-centered interviews, which provide in-depth insights into the lives of young people. Data collection is carried out by support organizations and by directly approaching young people on the street. The data analysis is carried out using a multi-method approach involving individual case studies and case vignettes to identify key topics, comparative causal and process analyses, in-depth hermeneutic analyses to capture latent meanings, and focus group discussions to validate the results in a participatory way.