Chronic Homelessness as a Stress Ecology: Economic Scarcity and the Reorganization of Agency

Abstract

Chronic homelessness represents one of the most extreme manifestations of cumulative social exclusion. It is not merely the absence of housing, but the prolonged exposure to multidimensional deprivation. International evidence consistently documents: elevated psychiatric prevalence, severe physical morbidity, accelerated mortality, and profound functional deterioration. However, most of this literature has centered on diagnostic categories and comorbidity rates, emphasizing psychopathology as the primary explanatory axis. This diagnostic focus, while important, risks obscuring a deeper question: What happens to psychological systems under prolonged exposure to structural instability?