CLEVELAND – How does a person become homeless?

What happened to them before they lived on the streets?

A new study from Case Western Reserve University challenges assumptions about the conditions that lead to chronic homelessness.

“This story is really about love and caring,” said Meagan Ray-Novak, a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Center on Poverty and Community Development at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School, who led the research.

Care and its costs

Ray-Novak first examined the intersection of race and gender in chronic homelessness.

But then another topic emerged.

“We asked people in general what life was like before they became homeless, and we found that the majority of the population actually experienced some kind of loss,” she said. “Some form of death, divorce, separation and caring responsibilities that had significantly impacted her ability to remain in her home.”

She said many of the study participants prioritized caring for a loved one, even at the expense of their personal and economic stability.

Ray-Novak explained: “People are giving up their living conditions. They either quit their job or lose their job to take care of a family member, and that’s a loving thing, it’s a positive thing, but then.” After that, it’s really complicated to recover from that, in a way Way we didn’t expect at all.

“It shows us that people make decisions based on their relationships,” she said. “But it also shows us that the system is not supporting families to care for each other and keeping people out of hospice care or keeping them at home.”

Key findings

Ray-Novak’s study included 40 in-depth interviews with people experiencing chronic homelessness.

This led Ray-Novak to develop a theory called “relational connectedness and values-driven decision making” to show how personal relationships, including family and friends, play a crucial role in life decisions that have serious consequences.

She found that many participants prioritized family relationships, even if this led to “personal instability” such as losing jobs and housing.

She found that 35% of participants said the death of a parent, spouse or significant other accelerated their homelessness.

Over half said “relationship breakdowns” such as separation, divorce and death contributed to their “housing instability.”

Regarding the racial and gender dynamics that were the intended topic of the study, Ray-Novak said she found that participants did not always associate their homelessness with their race or gender, but she found that systems often responded to these identities differently, particularly among black men and women.

Two-thirds of the study participants were black men. The study found that most did not attribute their homelessness to their race, although they acknowledged that racism is pervasive and widespread.

She found that women in the study did not see gender as the primary cause of their housing shortage, but reported widespread sexual exploitation.

She also found that none of the participants regretted their decision to care for a loved one.

“Everyone said, ‘No. My mother needed me. They wanted to put her in hospice. There’s no way that would happen,'” Ray-Novak said. “This is great, so I think we should celebrate it.”

Eugene’s story

Eugene Sopher, 50, often talks about how his artistic talent helped him get off the streets.

“Drawing saved my life,” he said. “That was my therapy.”

News 5 first shared his story in 2019, when Sopher was still homeless, and in 2022, when an art exhibit in Chagrin Falls featured his cartoon caricatures.

Art exhibition with a former homeless cartoonist

READ MORE: The art exhibit in Chagrin Falls features a former homeless cartoonist

But Sopher said he is rarely asked what happened before he became homeless.

“I was a dead man walking,” he said.

When his mother suffered a stroke, Sopher said he moved in with her.

“It’s my mother,” he said. “The person who gave me life is the person above God.”

But he found it difficult to keep up with her care, her bills and his own bills.

“It was important to try to take care of them,” he said. “But I couldn’t.”

When his mother moved into a nursing home, he lost his home.

When she died in his arms, he said he lost his mind.

“I snapped,” he said.

Grief, he said, compounded his mental health issues.

He said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression.

“Imagine having no one,” he said. “When I lost my mother, I felt the same way.”

Undercover bum

Sopher described himself as an “undercover bum.”

He said he stayed with friends and relatives until his welcome wore out.

Then he lived in his truck.

He got a gym membership — not to work out, but to have access to a restroom.

Eventually he got better.

“One day I just sat back and felt sick and sick and tired,” he said. “I looked in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw.”

He said people noticed his art and “everything just fit me.”

Now he uses his cartoon art to bring attention to serious issues like grief and loss.

Homeless man creates coloring book pages with lessons he believes children and adults need to hear

READ MORE: Homeless man creates coloring book pages with lessons he believes children and adults need to hear

“Like the phoenix, I rise from the ashes and shine,” he said.