As found in the literature review, hope is a multi-faceted, multidimensional concept that is unique to the human experience. Hope has been found to be a significant factor in the quality of life of persons who have debilitating and/or terminal illnesses, severe mental illnesses, and those who have experienced trauma and loss. However, this dissertation attempts to explore how hope is experienced by women who are, or who have been homeless in an effort to understand how hope "operates" in this population of marginalized and unaccommodated women. How does hope "look" in this population? Has hopefulness been fleeting or constant through the journey of homelessness? What kinds of things have instilled and/or facilitated hope for these women? Not overtly stated, but implied is the theme of what clinicians can do to be purveyors of hope for women who experience homelessness.

Women who experience homelessness often live with many issues including poverty, compromised physical and mental health, substance abuse and dependence, and problems with their primary support network. Gaps in homeless services contribute to the problems that are faced by these women. This dissertation attempts identify the nature of hope and the ways in which hope is manifested for these women as they struggle to exit homelessness successfully and permanently. Fifteen women who receive services at a social services agency in Chicago, Illinois are administered the Herth Hope Scale (1992), and an open-ended interview. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized to explore each woman's experience of hope in the context of homelessness. In addition, a consideration of the policies that inform homeless services were discussed and reviewed to shed light on homelessness as an internal, interpersonal, and societal phenomenon.