Operational Challenges: Perspective of Leaders and Staff at a Permanent Supportive Housing Organization

This paper focuses on the operational challenges faced by the leaders, management and staff at a permanent supportive housing organization in an urban city situated in the Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The paper is derived from a cross-sectional case study about the processes of establishing and operating a single site permanent supportive housing for individuals with a history of homelessness. The data collection and analysis took place over a period of four years spanning 2018 to 2022. For this paper, semi-structured interviews with six individuals in the leadership positions, one manager, three support staff members, and two placement students were analyzed as per the constant comparison method and iterative thematic analytical processes. The findings were clustered in three major themes and several subthemes. The major themes pertained to organizational functioning, financial domain, and tenancy and tenants. The findings reveal the underlying structural, systemic, and cultural barriers in operating a permanent supportive housing organization. Implications for further research are delineated in the concluding section of the paper.