Homelessness: Ending Homelessness as a Grand Challenge

Abstract

Homelessness in the United States has been a long-standing problem, but it became a national crisis in the 1980s as unprecedented numbers of individuals and families fell into deep poverty amid a rapidly shrinking stock of affordable housing. The persistence of this problem spurred a variety of emergency responses ranging from soup kitchens to temporary shelters. Despite well-intentioned outreach to help those most in need, the numbers of persons experiencing homelessness rose steadily as charitable groups and government officials struggled to keep pace. Initially, this focus on emergency services left little time for research and evaluation of different models of care. However, recent decades have witnessed the rise of empirically supported interventions to address homelessness. Although homelessness continues to be a national crisis, consensus has grown regarding the optimal means of ending homelessness rather than simply managing it. Summoning political will and bringing stakeholders to work together make this possible. The Grand Challenge to End Homelessness (GC2EH) was first introduced in 2015 as part of an ambitious social agenda sponsored by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. It was among twelve Grand Challenge proposals initially selected based on a number of criteria: that (a) it is an issue that is big, important, and compelling; (b) scientific evidence suggests that it is achievable; (c) its pursuit is likely to generate interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration; and (d) achieving it will require significant innovation. The GC2EH, which was built on existing efforts and a knowledge base of effective practices, was presented as a call to action to the social work profession to make significant progress toward ending homelessness in ten years. As an initiative, the GC2EH is decentralized such that anyone inspired by the challenge to address homelessness can do so under its auspices. At the start of the GC2EH initiative in 2016, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States had been steadily decreasing for nearly a decade, demonstrating that progress could be made. Unfortunately, this trend reversed in 2018, with national estimates increasing in the subsequent two years. As a result, there have been calls both in and outside of government to focus exclusively on policies and practices that have been shown to be effective—most notably, Housing First. Perhaps not surprisingly, there has also been opposition to Housing First as being too lenient in providing immediate access to housing without demands of conformity and sobriety. Since 2016, schools of social work have taken up the GC2EH through educational innovations, research collaborations, policy proposals, and university-community partnerships. These efforts represent building blocks toward the goal of ending homelessness.