ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop momentum toward addressing these questions: How do we think about and report the choices of homeless people when they grate against our normative structural analyses? Is using theory simply a means to bring in an interpretation that confirms the preexisting ideological and political position of the author? Does theory override the perspectives of those who articulated their understanding of choice and homelessness? It presents multiple data sources to demonstrate how people who are homeless or who have exited homelessness see choice and their capacities for control as critical determiners of their life circumstances. It considers the lives and environments of the people who coupled homelessness and choice. The chapter demonstrates how choice is a meaningful concept for people who are homeless. It would be easy to conclude that homeless people's understandings of choice are indicative of social forces that pressure them to blame themselves for social problems.
