Definition Of Homelessness Research Articles

Housing instability increases for stimulant-involved overdose deaths after linking surveillance data to electronic health records in Kentucky

BackgroundAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 10.2 % of fatal overdoses in 2022 were among people experiencing homelessness or housing instability. In the United States, the majority of all drug overdoses now involve stimulants. MethodsWe linked stimulant-involved fatal overdose records occurring between 2017 and 2021 from Kentucky’s Drug Overdose Fatality Surveillance System to the electronic health records (EHR) of the state’s largest safety-net hospital network. We used State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) definitions of homelessness or housing instability to establish baseline estimates before linking decedents to medical records. After linkage, we augmented SUDORS data with structured administrative billing codes, semi-structured address data, and unstructured clinical notes identifying homelessness from the EHR. ResultsThere were 313 individuals with stimulant-involved fatal overdoses linked to at least one medical encounter in the EHR (2017–2021). Thirty-three individuals (10.5 %) were identified as having unstable housing according to SUDORS. After linkage, 130 individuals (41.5 %) had evidence of housing instability. For this period, these 313 individuals represent 8.0 % of stimulant-involved overdoses in KY or 38.5 % of stimulant-involved overdoses from residents of the primary and secondary catchment area of our healthcare network. ConclusionsThe single-site increase in observed housing instability in stimulant-involved fatal overdoses suggests that increased data linkage between state medicolegal death investigation system and EHRs would significantly improve the public health surveillance of overdoses.

Quantifying Doubled-Up Homelessness: Presenting a New Measure Using U.S. Census Microdata

Some definitions of homelessness include doubling up—living with others because of economic hardship or housing loss. Doubling up can have negative consequences that should be addressed, but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s methods for enumerating homelessness exclude these arrangements, and Department of Education counts of doubling up include only school children. We provide a new method for measuring doubled-up homelessness in the total population using American Community Survey public use microdata. Using this method, we find that 3.7 million people in the U.S. population were doubled up in 2019 and show significant differences in doubling up by geography, race and ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, school enrollment, and employment status, and compare these findings with research on sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. Notably, rates of Hispanic/Latinx doubled-up homelessness were high, in contrast to their rates of literal homelessness, and some rural areas with low rates of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness had high rates of doubling up. To aid in future research and policy, supplemental materials provide open-source tools for replicating the measure. Findings suggest that policies addressing homelessness and housing insecurity consider those experiencing doubled-up homelessness and that the current measure can assist in those efforts.

What Does it Mean to be Homeless? How Definitions Affect Homelessness Policy

Government agencies use varying criteria in defining homelessness. While scholars debate over and use different definitions of homelessness, little research has explored the impacts the definition has on perceived problem severity and the types of communities receiving aid. I first explore four definitions of child and youth homelessness used by United States’ federal agencies. I then use panel data for school districts, which report homelessness by subgroup, to analyze how the definition of homelessness changes its prevalence and leads to disparate impacts. I find the definition of homelessness including students living doubled-up leads to a higher growth rate. Definitions also change which districts have high rates of homelessness and characteristics of these districts, suggesting resources following students experiencing homelessness go to different types of communities. Scholars should consider how a problem is defined, differences in the measurement used between studies, and how the definition affects where resources go.

Marginally housed or marginally homeless?

AbstractThe English homelessness scheme has been lauded as being one of the most progressive in the world for offering an individually legally enforceable right to housing to those people who meet the statutory criteria. Its definition of homelessness is also liberal by comparison with many other countries within Europe and beyond, extending significantly beyond the stereotypical rooflessness experienced by rough sleepers. Nevertheless, the scheme is highly selective and targeted, and assesses homelessness through a test of relative need, rather than enshrining a minimally acceptable standard of housing. It thereby creates a category of the marginally housed whose housing needs are assessed as insufficiently poor to be officially categorised as homeless, yet who are living in severely inadequate housing. To reduce the uncertainty and contingency of the current test, the paper proposes the adoption of a new test of habitability.

What is the Problem of Homelessness in Japan? Conceptualisation, Research, and Policy Response

The definition of homelessness and the policies responding to it differ from society to society, as does understanding a state of being "homeless", all of which are socially constructed. Because in Japan today homelessness is perceived only as a situation of sleeping on the street, the prevalence is perceived as low. However, this definition is narrow compared to what, for example, FEANTSA has proposed in Europe. Therefore, Japanese policy and policy makers need to shift to be congruent with international standards. To begin this shift we need to understand how the "narrow" perception of homelessness in Japan has been constructed. Therefore, in this paper a historical review is provided starting on the premise of the "loss of home" of Japanese society after World War II, the rapid increase of "visible homelessness" since the 1990s, the enactment of formal homelessness law, and rising "visible homelessness". More recently there is also expanded interest in "invisible homelessness" due to current homelessness research. The issue of lack of a public housing allowance and limited public housing is explored connected to an absence of housing policy. Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic has increased anxiety about the loss of homes and there is a need to shift homelessness measures into housing policy.

America’s inescapable crisis: Student homelessness

Homelessness among U.S. K-12 students has been on the rise for decades, and it shows no signs of slowing down, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to significant unemployment. Joseph Bishop describes findings from a study of student homelessness in California. Interviews with those experiencing homelessness and those who serve them, as well as analysis of the data, reveal the obstacles that prevent these communities from receiving the help they need. These include differing definitions of homelessness, limited funding being made available, and lack of training among the educators who could help identify and support students. Because of the multifaceted nature of the problem, groups at the local, state, and national levels must find ways to work together to arrive at solutions tailored to the need.

Reimagining homelessness assistance for children and families

The homelessness response system in the United States is dominated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD’s definition of homelessness, program models, metrics, data, approaches, and goals have overshadowed those of other federal agencies. This policy brief argues that children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness have been poorly served by HUD’s dominance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It proposes that other federal agencies, specifically the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education, are better suited to provide comprehensive homeless assistance for children, youth, and families. The author draws from research, policy analyses, and testimonies of parents, service providers, and educators to make the case for a reimagined homelessness response that is child-centered and oriented toward long-term goals of economic independence, health, and wellness.

Homelessness and Mental Illness: Views from Early Career Psychiatrists from Asian Countries

Homelessness is an important social determinant of health. The information has been sparse on the relationship between homelessness and mental illnesses in Asian countries. In this perspective paper, we present the synthesis of viewpoints of early career psychiatrists from several Asian countries on the relationship of homelessness and mental illnesses. An online questionnaire was used to gather responses. The definition of homelessness was kept broad and included both temporary and lasting homelessness. The responses were synthesized into paragraphs to describe the perspective for the country. Although difficulties were experienced in the estimation of homelessness, the numbers of homeless individuals varied from practically negligible in Jordan to about 1.77 million in India. Mental health issues were present in the homeless population and included affective disorders, psychotic disorders, and substance use disorders. The psychiatrists generally had a considerate viewpoint toward treating the mentally ill homeless people. There is a need for more literature on the interface of homelessness and mental illness from Asian countries, especially where the homeless populations are substantial.

Resetting Policies to End Family Homelessness.

Homelessness is a devastating experience for children and their families. Families, the majority of whose members are children, now comprise more than one-third of the overall US homeless population. Most of these children are less than six years old. Various assumptions have driven policy and the allocation of resources to programs serving these families. Although decades of research and field experience suggest strategies for preventing and reducing this problem, perspectives differ, hindering the development of effective solutions. In this article, we explore some of these assumptions, including (a) definitions of homelessness used to count the numbers of families and determine resource allocation, (b) the needs of children and responses to the impact of adverse childhood experiences, and (c) whether services matter and should be integrated with affordable housing. We conclude by suggesting various directions to ensure that these children are protected and have the opportunity to grow and thrive.

Where do I belong? Rethinking homelessness

ABSTRACTA theological reflection on homelessness in relation to belonging and identity is presented. The paper focuses on how the theory of the extended self can provide a possible pathway towards a clearer definition of homelessness. The current definitions of homelessness including theological writing on the topic are reviewed. The specific context is the author’s experience of working in homeless residential hostels run by The Salvation Army, and now as a learning and development specialist for The Salvation Army. An outcome is to sketch out possible changes to practice for The Salvation Army in particular and for homeless work in general based on a redescription of homelessness.

Social conditions of becoming homelessness: qualitative analysis of life stories of homeless peoples

BackgroundIt is increasingly acknowledged that homelessness is a more complex social and public health phenomenon than the absence of a place to live. This view signifies a paradigm shift, from the definition of homelessness in terms of the absence of permanent accommodation, with its focus on pathways out of homelessness through the acquisition and maintenance of permanent housing, to understanding the social context of homelessness and social interventions to prevent it.However, despite evidence of the association between homelessness and social factors, there is very little research that examines the wider social context within which homelessness occurs from the perspective of homeless people themselves. This study aims to examine the stories of homeless people to gain understanding of the social conditions under which homelessness occurs, in order to propose a theoretical explanation for it.MethodTwenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with homeless people in three centres for homeless people in Cheshire North West of England.ResultsThe analysis revealed that becoming homeless is a process characterised by a progressive waning of resilience capacity to cope with life challenges created by series of adverse incidents in one’s life. The data show that final stage in the process of becoming homeless is complete collapse of relationships with those close to them. Most prominent pattern of behaviours participants often describe as main causes of breakdown of their relationships are:engaging in maladaptive behavioural lifestyle including taking drugs and/or excessive alcohol drinkingBeing in trouble with people in authorities.ConclusionHomeless people describe the immediate behavioural causes of homelessness, however, the analysis revealed the social and economic conditions within which homelessness occurred. The participants’ descriptions of the social conditions in which were raised and their references to maladaptive behaviours which led to them becoming homeless, led us to conclude that they believe that their social condition affected their life chances: that these conditions were responsible for their low quality of social connections, poor educational attainment, insecure employment and other reduced life opportunities available to them.

Identifying and managing mental health needs of homeless individuals

The economic downturn worldwide since 2008 has raised many issues, including an increase in homelessness. Individuals who are homeless are visible across the globe. Definitions of homelessness also vary. Living on the streets in all kinds of inclement weather, brings a different set of issues and problems including physical and mental illnesses. Here homelessness is defined as a lack of customary regular access to a conventional dwelling unit. It has been shown in several studies that nearly half were either depressed or had substance use disorders and half had traumatic brain injury. Homelessness is a social issue and the role of the psychiatrist in reaching these vulnerable individuals is a matter of critical importance. In the UK health services are geographically delineated making it more difficult for ‘out of area’ individuals to get help. The responsibility for looking after people who are homeless, have mental illness or physical co-morbidity, lies with policymakers as well. As clinicians we must advocate for vulnerable patients and psychiatry care needs to be in a joined-up manner. Early interventions and home treatments where and if available are suitable and can be effective but are often linked with secure addresses. Policies must take into account huge variations across cultures and societies and the contributions that unemployment and poverty can play in increasing homelessness. Whether psychiatric disorders lead to homelessness and whether homelessness leads to mental illness is a circular argument and this vicious downward spiral needs to be broken by adequate care and policy support.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Women's Homelessness: International Evidence on Causes, Consequences, Coping and Policies

This paper reviews international evidence regarding women’s homelessness. It discusses different definitions of homelessness and how women are frequently part of the “hidden homeless” population and less a part of the unsheltered homeless population. It also considers the data that are used to enumerate and study homeless people. The structural, personal, and random causes of homelessness are discussed, with evidence pointing to highly gendered patterns. The paper also describes the consequences of women’s homelessness, including the consequences for children, and the material and psychological coping strategies that homeless people employ. It considers policies to reduce homelessness and ameliorate its problems.

Gendering Women's Homelessness

The importance of developing gender-sensitive policy responses to women's homelessness has emerged in recent literature on homelessness. To achieve this, policy responses must recognise the diverse and complex needs of all homeless women, including those accompanied or unaccompanied by their children. This paper reviews some of the key literature on homelessness to ascertain the extent to which gender is recognised in explanations of homelessness. What emerges is that current frameworks fail to recognise the depth of inequalities experienced by homeless mothers who are unaccompanied by their children. This leads to the stigmatising of this group as ‘bad’ mothers. This paper recognises the importance of the affective domain as a key site for understanding and analysing the multiple inequalities that shape women's experiences of homelessness. It suggests that inserting the affective domain into approaches for understanding home and homelessness will go some way to ensuring that definitions of homelessness 'avoid the stigmatisation of homeless people' (Edgar 2009, p.13) and towards enabling the conditions for equality-based outcomes for all women.

Network Approaches to Substance Use and HIV/Hepatitis C Risk among Homeless Youth and Adult Women in the United States: A Review.

During the United States economic recession of 2008–2011, the number of homeless and unstably housed people in the United States increased considerably. Homeless adult women and unaccompanied homeless youth make up the most marginal segments of this population. Because homeless individuals are a hard to reach population, research into these marginal groups has traditionally been a challenge for researchers interested in substance abuse and mental health. Network analysis techniques and research strategies offer means for dealing with traditional challenges such as missing sampling frames, variation in definitions of homelessness and study inclusion criteria, and enumeration/population estimation procedures. This review focuses on the need for, and recent steps toward, solutions to these problems that involve network science strategies for data collection and analysis. Research from a range of fields is reviewed and organized according to a new stress process framework aimed at understanding how homeless status interacts with issues related to substance abuse and mental health. Three types of network innovation are discussed: network scale-up methods, a network ecology approach to social resources, and the integration of network variables into the proposed stress process model of homeless substance abuse and mental health. By employing network methods and integrating these methods into existing models, research on homeless and unstably housed women and unaccompanied young people can address existing research challenges and promote more effective intervention and care programs.

‘Red dust homelessness’: Housing, home and homelessness in remote Australia

Homelessness is often conceptualised as an urban problem. However, significant numbers of people experiencing homelessness live in regional, rural and remote areas, where distances can be considerable and there are fewer housing options and services available to assist them. Drawing on the perspectives of service providers, this paper discusses contested understandings of home and homelessness as well as housing and service provision in two remote Western Australian mining towns. The key findings were that normative policy definitions of homelessness that focused on ‘living in a house’ as a ‘home’ were not always culturally relevant for local Aboriginal communities, and there was limited access to adequate housing options in both communities. Furthermore, ‘top down’ funding and decisions often occurred without community consultation, which fragmented service delivery, limited ‘grassroots’ participation and constrained opportunities for locally relevant service responses. These findings highlight Westernised and urban assumptions underpinning the policy domain in which housing and homelessness responses are determined, emphasising the limits of current conceptualisations for Aboriginal people and service providers working in remote areas.

A teacher’s journey: a first-person account of how a gay, Cambodian refugee navigated myriad barriers to become educated in the United States

Educational institutions, like most social service organizations, need to recognize intersectionality and complexity and move away from monolithic conceptions of homelessness – if they recognize homelessness at all. This first person account of a gay, Cambodian refugee illustrates the enormous complexity schools face in forming institutional responses for the needs of homeless, highly mobile, and economically displaced children and youth. This article demonstrates an effort to avoid reductionist definitions of homelessness and to include experiential representations of humans living at the margins (under the 5th Avenues of the world, in central parks, in downtown shelters, outside of the ethical and systemic “home” of current ideologies and social orders, under the politics of HIV in Africa, as refugees and as those “othered” by dominant social narratives). The research takes place in the context of the At Home At School program at Washington State University.

Youth Homelessness: Prevalence and Mental Health Correlates

National data suggest the rate of youth homelessness has been increasing over the last several years. However, estimates of the true prevalence of youth homelessness vary greatly based on counting method and definitions of homelessness. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate how the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) could be used to understand the prevalence of youth homelessness, characteristics of homeless experiences, and how these experiences relate to mental health problems among youth. Findings demonstrate the number of youth identified as homeless by the YRBS are considerably higher than the number identified by traditional counting methods. Furthermore, youth experiencing homelessness reported disproportionately higher rates of mental health problems than their housed peers. Implications for practice, policy and future research are discussed.

Ronald E. Hallett: Educational Experiences of Hidden Homeless Teenagers: Living Doubled-Up

In Educational Experience of Hidden Homeless Teenagers: Living Doubled-Up, Ronald Hallett examines how the educational experiences of a subgroup of homeless adolescents are affected by their living situations. Hallett focuses on a specific subgroup of homeless adolescents who are ‘‘sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason.’’ 42 U.S.C. § 11434(a) (also known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act). Hallett defines these adolescents as ‘‘living doubled-up.’’ While these adolescents and their families do not identify themselves as homeless, Congress has recognized that these individuals walk a fine line between homeless and housed. As Hallet (2012, p. 4) notes, adolescents ‘‘living doubled-up’’ represent 60 % of homeless youth. Hallett chose to study this group because it is the least studied group of homeless adolescents, this sort of living situation is often a precursor to other forms of residential instability and part of a cycle of homelessness, and this type of living situation is in a gray area between housed and homeless, which goes against the American Dream. An important distinction is made between a residence, i.e., an apartment or house, and a household, a family unit such as a mother and her children. Therefore, a doubled-up residence is made up of several households. Hallett reveals the tensions present between households sharing a residence and how this tension affects the educational experiences of four adolescents. In Chapter 1, Hallett discusses the federal law surrounding homeless students, explains the purpose of the study, and outlines the format for the rest of the book. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act frames how schools identify and serve homeless students and defines a homeless person as ‘‘an individual lacking a fixed, regular and adequate night-time residence.’’ Under this Act, individuals who live doubled-up with other households in order to avoid homelessness or an economic crisis are defined as homeless. Individuals who fall within this broad definition of homelessness have many different experiences and do not constitute one homogenous group. The purpose of this study is to learn about how adolescents living doubled-up and defined as homeless experience the educational system. The four adolescents who are the focus of this study are given voices through this book so that readers can understand that there are many differences within the category of households living doubled-up. Hallett focuses on the risk and protective factors present in the lives of these adolescents and how those factors impact the adolescents’ educational progress. Educational resilience, the focus of this book, is explained in Chapter 2: Resilience and Homeless Youth. Hallett explains that Resiliency Theory focuses on the study of protective factors that allow at-risk youth to obtain normal educational, psychological and social outcomes in spite of the risks these youth face. Risk factors are behaviors, conditions, or characteristics that have a negative impact on individuals, such as high mobility rates, residential instability, low-performing schools, low-income neighborhoods, and high levels of neighborhood violence and illegal activity. Instead of trying to determine the negative outcomes for at-risk youth, researchers using Resiliency Theory focus on the protective factors that help these youth overcome adversity. Protective factors can be a family or social network to fall back on, community support, or other factors that positively influence youth. A youth is labeled as resilient if he or she successfully adapts after facing adversity. Educational resilience, the focus of E. N. Johnson (&) Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA e-mail: eboen@indiana.edu

Methodological problems of sampling young homeless people in four European societies with different levels of service provision and definitions of homelessness

PurposeThis article aims to describe methodological issues in relation to the definition of homelessness and the drawing of samples of young homeless people in four European countries. The purposes of the research project were, first, to make a comparison of different homeless situations facing young people in these four countries, and second, to introduce early intervention and action planning methodologies developed in the UK and The Netherlands to other countries in the study – Portugal (a family welfare society) and the Czech Republic (an ex‐communist regime redeveloping its welfare policies).Design/methodology/approachAfter extensive discussions and key worker interviews with local agencies, 54 homeless young people were interviewed in each country. Each sample was intended to be purposive in that it should recruit homeless young men and women from those born in that country from the dominant (white) ethnic group, born in that country from minority ethnic groups, and young people not born in that country. A major issue was how to define homelessness in order to be able to recruit across the spectrum of homeless youth.FindingsThe purposive samples recruited in the four countries reflected the availability of services in those countries and levels of family support. Whilst young homeless people in The Netherlands and the UK were mostly living in supported housing, in Portugal they were living as “hidden homeless” and in the Czech Republic on the streets or in squats.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodological difficulties encountered during the project are themselves a useful lesson learnt, for the creation of trans‐national understanding and politicy.Practical implicationsNevertheless, despite the very different circumstances of limited services in Portugal and the Czech Republic, it appeared that both early intervention methods and key working approaches could be applied broadly across the EU.Originality/valueTransnational studies of youth homelessness are rare and therefore produce particularly useful insights for research, policy and practice.