The ambiguous influences of fire safety on people with mental health problems in supported housing

Over the last few decades, various housing types for people with mental health problems have been developed for use in the community. These housing types differ in their objectives, staff support and design. In this study, we focus on how fire safety influences the lives of tenants in supported housing. The qualitative study was designed with a multi-sited ethnography approach. Fieldwork was conducted in seven different Norwegian supported housing settings in 2017 with 105 participants (29 tenants, 70 staff, five managers, and one planner). The empirical data consist of field notes, recorded interviews and pictures, which were analyzed with grounded theory and situational analysis. The analysis reconstructed how fire safety was organized and tenants’ experiences of it. These experiences could be positive (such as feeling protected) or negative (such as feeling annoyed or under surveillance). The tenants coped differently with these situations, and fire safety sets boundaries for tenants. Overall, fire safety was organized differently in the supported housing settings we looked at comparison to in most of the common housing units in Norway. The influences of fire safety on daily life can be understood as ambiguous and can be interpreted as a normalizing factor in a risk society. Thus, we emphasize the need for appropriate and well-considered fire safety as a public health intervention in supported housing.