Reductions In Homelessness Research Articles

Beyond the ‘At Risk’ Individual: Housing and the Eradication of Poverty to Prevent Homelessness

A prevention framework represents one of the fundamental means of the Australian Government's contemporary drive to achieve permanent reductions in homelessness. Consistent with prevailing policies in the UK and US, Australia has approached homelessness prevention through identification and early intervention of individuals ‘at risk’ of homelessness. In this article we suggest that prevention strategies focused on the risk factors that individual pose obscures efforts to address the underlying structural factors that contribute to homelessness, or to reduce the prevalence of homelessness at the overall population level. The article examines the efficacy of increasing the supply of affordable housing to prevent homelessness, but suggests that the provision of housing alone may be insufficient to realising related well‐being objectives. In turn, it is proposed that policy which focuses on poverty reduction has the capacity to achieve the sustainable prevention of homelessness ambitions.

Initial Feasibility of a Woman-Focused Intervention for Pregnant African-American Women

African-American women who use crack are vulnerable to HIV because of the complex social circumstances in which they live. Drug-abuse treatment for these women during pregnancy may provide time for changing risk behaviors. This paper examines the initial 6-month feasibility of a women-focused HIV intervention, the Women's CoOp, adapted for pregnant women, relative to treatment-as-usual among 59 pregnant African-American women enrolled in drug-abuse treatment. At treatment entry, the women were largely homeless, unemployed, practicing unsafe sex, and involved in violence. Results indicated marked reductions in homelessness, use of cocaine and illegal drugs, involvement in physical violence, and an increase in knowledge of HIV from baseline to 6-month followup for both conditions. Findings suggest that the Women's CoOp intervention could be successfully adapted to treat this hard-to-reach population. Future studies should examine the efficacy of the pregnancy-adapted Women's CoOp for women not enrolled in drug-abuse treatment.

A review of the literature on the effectiveness of housing and support, assertive community treatment, and intensive case management interventions for persons with mental illness who have been homeless.

A review of 16 controlled outcome evaluations of housing and support interventions for people with mental illness who have been homeless revealed significant reductions in homelessness and hospitalization and improvements in other outcomes (e.g., well-being) resulting from programs that provided permanent housing and support, assertive community treatment (ACT), and intensive case management (ICM). The best outcomes for housing stability were found for programs that combined housing and support (effect size = .67), followed by ACT alone (effect size = .47), while the weakest outcomes were found for ICM programs alone (effect size = .28). The results of this review were discussed in terms of their implications for policy, practice, and future research.

A Narrative Approach to the Evaluation of Supportive Housing: Stories of Homeless People Who Have Experienced Serious Mental Illness.

We present the findings of a narrative approach to the evaluation of supportive housing for formerly homeless people who have experienced serious mental illness. According to the accounts of 11 men and 9 women, their youth and adult years were filled with personal problems, troubled relationships, and a lack of adequate social resources. Since entering supportive housing, participants noted more stability in their lives and the beginning of journeys to recover positive personal identities, restore or develop new supportive relationships, and reclaim resources vital to leading lives with dignity and meaning. The findings add to the literature on housing interventions for this population in suggesting many positive gains beyond reductions in homelessness and hospitalization.

Gender differences in response to homelessness services

This study examines the importance of considering gender in evaluating the effectiveness of homelessness service interventions among solitary adults with severe mental illnesses. The participants received services in one of two types of evidenced-based homelessness intervention programs: a comprehensive housing program or a specialized case management program. Using a quasi-experimental research design with non-random assignment to conditions, we examined changes in housing status, mental health, substance use, quality of life, and physical health from baseline to 6 and 12 months afterward. One hundred and fifty-two participants completed the baseline interview and 108 were available for at least one of the follow-up interviews. The results indicated that males had significantly greater reductions in homelessness in the comprehensive housing program than in the specialized case management program, whereas females showed a more complex pattern. Women in both programs showed significant reductions in homelessness, but females in the specialized case management program achieved greater stable housing time because women in the comprehensive housing program were more likely to have their time in stable housing reduced by stays in psychiatric hospitals. We conclude that variables such as gender that have been shown to influence the etiology, nature, and course of homelessness should also be considered in evaluating the effectiveness of homeless services interventions.