Infrastructures of dignity: home in transitional housing and shelters for older adults experiencing homelessness in Canada

As late life homelessness increases, understanding how older adults make home amidst housing instability is critical. Drawing on Boccagni’s conceptualization of homing as an analytic framework, this qualitative study examines how older adults experience home within transitional housing and shelter settings. We conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth interviews with 49 older adults residing in transitional housing and shelters across Vancouver, Calgary, and Montréal. Findings show that participants evaluated their current living environments in relation to prior experiences of non-home, including emergency shelters, precarious housing, and unsheltered living. Across sites, experiences of home were shaped by material, spatial, and sensory conditions, including access to beds, bathrooms, kitchens, lighting, temperature control, privacy, and autonomy. These conditions supported experiences of dignity, safety, healing, and future-oriented thinking. By conceptualizing home as a process rather than a permanent state, this study challenges dominant aging in place narratives and demonstrates how supportive built environments can foster experiences of home within temporary living environments, contributing to scholarship on aging in the right place.