This study looks at two sets of women who stayed in New York City home less shel ters in 1992—one set as part of a fam ily and the other set as in dividuals—and at fac tors as sociated with an in creased risk of their ex periencing re peat shel ter stays. De scriptive sta tistics and event his tory analy sis in di cate that re gardless of whether the women stay in shel ters with their fami lies or by them selves, vari ous fam ily dy namics are as sociated with par ticular vul - nerability to sub sequent shel ter stays, es pecially when the women are part of “young” fami - lies, are in house holds with ab sent chil dren, or dis close a his tory of do mestic vio lence. Exits from a shel ter stay to one’s own hous ing, on the other hand, has the strong est as sociation with avoiding re peat shel ter stays. These re sults sug gest that fam ily dy namics and the avail ability of af fordable hous ing are two im portant fo cuses for ef forts to re duce the in cidence of home - lessness among women.