Constraint instead of empowerment: stigma-related strategies performed in the homeless association

The article is based on findings from an ongoing long-term ethnographic study conducted with people experiencing homelessness in Łódź (Poland). It aims to analyse stigma-related strategies applied by both homeless and housed actors engaged within a self-organized homeless association, examining their functions in exiting homelessness. Adopting a qualitative, interpretative approach focused on the perspectives of people experiencing homelessness, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and field notes. Constructivist grounded theory and positional mapping were employed for data analysis. In the findings, we present stigma-related strategies that deepen, maintain, reduce, or overcome stigma. These strategies function as mechanisms of either constraint or empowerment along pathways out of homelessness. Strategies that maintain and deepen stigma predominated in the association, acting as severe barriers to exiting homelessness. In the discussion, we highlight the necessity of collective empowerment and demonstrate how the organizational context, the institutional design of social service delivery and attention to internal power dynamics can actively influence pathways out of homelessness and overcoming stigma.