Comment on Dennis P. Culhane et al.’s “Public shelter admission Rates in Philadelphia and New York City: The implications of turnover for sheltered population counts”

Abstract

Dennis Culhane and his coauthors have made an important contribution to our understanding of contemporary homelessness. Until now attention has been all too exclusively focused on point-prevalence estimates. Their credible calculations of periodprevalence estimates of the sheltered homeless in Philadelphia and New York City tell us that the cumulative impact of homelessness over time is quite high. Their findings may allow homelessness policies to become more carefully and closely tailored to differences among the homeless in their needs for resources and services.