Using Methods that Matter: A Critical Examination of Photovoice for Studying Supportive Housing

Objectives: To understand what can be learned about supportive housing from an investigator initiated and driven multidisciplinary approach to photovoice. Methods: The HousingPlus project was conducted with 15 tenants living in supportive housing. The project was designed and facilitated by the author with the support of a multidisciplinary team of project contributors. Participants were asked to express their perspectives on supportive housing using photography. Participants documented their experiences with their housing and spoke about what their photos meant to them during photo-elicited interviews and at a final exhibition. Findings: This photovoice project elicited a fairly comprehensive view of housing, including an understanding of personal experiences, relationships, housing difficulties and supports, and finally broader community experiences. The breadth and highly personalized nature of information generated from this approach to photovoice compliment findings within the supportive housing literature. Conclusions: This method appears to be well suited for identifying a broad range of experiences and issues in the lives of participants, including their lived experiences of supportive housing. PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES OF SUPPORTIVE HOUSING 36 Overview of Study 1: The HousingPlus Project This study was a photovoice project in which people living in supportive housing were asked to express, in a novel way, their perspectives on supportive housing. Through photography, participants documented their experiences with their housing and what it meant to them. Interviews, using a photo-elicitation technique, were then used to understand participants’ perspectives on their housing. The guiding research question for this study is: 1) What can be learned about supportive housing from an investigator initiated and driven approach to photovoice? Project Contributors A diverse group of individuals contributed to the HousingPlus project. This project, funded by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), was designed and led by the author. The co-investigators on this grant facilitated a collaboration between the Department of Visual Arts (DVA) and the School of Psychology (SP) at the University of Ottawa. Students in each department supported the study. The partnership with the DVA enabled the researchers to secure access to artist mentors and a curated exhibit held at the Bytown Museum. Artist mentors. Two artist mentors volunteered their time to this project. They were both masters’ level students in the DVA at the University of Ottawa who helped facilitate the photography workshops and photo-finishing meetings. Visual arts professors. Two visual arts professors in the DVA facilitated different aspects of this project. One professor taught a curatorial course to undergraduate students in the department. As part of this course, students were required to choose a visual arts project to PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES OF SUPPORTIVE HOUSING 37 curate. The second professor was involved in the design phase of the HousingPlus project. This person was also responsible for recruiting the artist mentors from the department. Student curators. Eleven students enrolled in an undergraduate curatorial course in the DVA curated the HousingPlus project for their final class project. Subsequently, three curator students volunteered to be interviewed about their experiences. These students were primarily responsible for organizing the curatorial team and liaising between the various contributors to organize the exhibit. Student curators had little contact with participants until the final group meeting held to prepare for the exhibit. Research team. The author acted as the project lead, liaising between stakeholders and contributors, and was the primary contact with participants. The research team consisted of three undergraduate students from the SP who supported the facilitator during the workshops and photo-finishing meetings. The work of one student formed the basis for a fourth-year honours thesis. She attended all workshops and meetings with participants and contributed to the analysis of data from interviews with project participants. The other students volunteered their time as a means to further their community research experience. These students worked under the supervision of the author and Dr. John Sylvestre. Participants. Participants were 15 tenants living in supportive housing from three months to 17 years. Eight women and seven men joined the project. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 57 years of age, and were living with a variety of personal difficulties, including severe and persistent mental and/or physical illness, substance use, transition due to separation and divorce, and risk of homelessness. All but one person reported that they lived alone in their housing. PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES OF SUPPORTIVE HOUSING 38 Recruitment. Permission to recruit participants was obtained from six supportive housing agencies. Participants were recruited through a pre-existing collaboration between a research team from the University of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Supportive Housing Network (OSHN). The participants were recruited through word-of-mouth, flyers placed at each agency (see Appendix A for the recruitment flyer), and through staff members. Members of the research team also visited three housing agencies to discuss the project with potential participants.