•Interventions for pregnant youth and young mothers facing housing instability or homelessness primarily focus on offering housing alongside support services.•When housing interventions incorporate ...supportive elements like case management, notable enhancement in health and employment outcomes for the youth are noted compared to housing-only initiatives.•Interventions offering in-home or school-based parental support yield positive outcomes for participants.•Interventions for pregnant youth and young mothers facing homelessness are crucial, not only for their well-being but also to reduce the intergenerational risk of homelessness for their children.
Pregnant youth and young mothers facing housing instability or homelessness encounter unique challenges that result in adverse health, educational, and employment consequences for both them and their children. This systematic review aimed to consolidate the available evidence on effective and promising interventions to prevent homelessness amongst youth who are pregnant or young mothers with children under 6 years old and assist those facing homelessness. This review encompassed 10 studies that revolved around two primary themes: housing and supportive services, such as case management (n = 6), and parental services, including childcare provision or parenting classes (n = 4). We found that housing strategies incorporating counselling and case management notably enhanced participants' substance use patterns, mental health, healthcare access, and employment trajectories. Comparatively, housing services without supportive services did not lead to improvements within the participants. Parental services such as family home visits significantly reduced homelessness for participating families. School-based programs that offer childcare and supportive services improved maternal academic outcomes, reduced the incidence of subsequent pregnancies, and fostered positive parenting practices. Mobile technology also appeared promising in enhancing the emotional and behavioural capabilities of the youth. In conclusion, interventions targeting young expectant individuals and mothers, whether at risk or already experiencing homelessness, primarily emphasize housing combined with supportive services and parenting assistance.
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The most vulnerable group in public spaces are homeless people. Their use of public space, especially during the corona pandemic, has not yet been researched. The authors reconstruct it using the ...example of the city of Cologne within the framework of a participatory study and consider data from questionnaires, GPS tracking, interviews and photography. The volume presents the innovative study and the methodological approach, bundles the extensive quantitative and qualitative findings of the study and thus makes a contribution to the theory and practice of social work with homeless people.
Die am stärksten gefährdete Gruppe im öffentlichen Raum sind obdachlose Menschen. Ihr Raumnutzungsverhalten, insbesondere während der Coronapandemie, wurde bislang kaum erforscht. Die Autor*innen rekonstruieren es am Beispiel der Stadt Köln im Rahmen einer partizipativ angelegten Studie und betrachten vereinend Daten aus Fragebögen, GPS-Tracking, Interviews und Fotografie. Der Band stellt die innovative Studie und das methodische Vorgehen vor, bündelt ihre umfangreichen quantitativen und qualitativen Ergebnisse und liefert damit einen Beitrag zur Theorie und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit mit wohnungslosen Menschen.
This article reassesses the policy concept of chronic homelessness in the light of women's experiences of long-term homelessness. Chronic homelessness, associated with long-term homelessness and high ...levels of emergency and homelessness service use among men, has received increased focus in research, policy and services in recent years, and despite women's comparative housing disadvantages, the overwhelming majority of people identified as experiencing chronic homelessness are male. This article draws on Carole Bacchi's work on how policy problems are represented, and on the results of a small qualitative study with women experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness, to show how current representations of chronic homelessness obscure rather than reflect women's experiences of long-term homelessness, marginalising their claims to housing and other assistance. The article concludes by suggesting opportunities to change this representation of the problem through research, evaluation, policy and program development that are informed by women's experiences.
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Homelessness represents an enduring public health threat facing communities across the developed world. Children, families, and marginalized adults face life course implications of housing ...insecurity, while communities struggle to address the extensive array of needs within heterogeneous homeless populations. Trends in homelessness remain stubbornly high despite policy initiatives to end homelessness. A complex systems perspective provides insights into the dynamics underlying coordinated responses to homelessness. A constant demand for housing assistance strains service delivery, while prevention efforts remain inconsistently implemented in most countries. Feedback processes challenge efficient service delivery. A system dynamics model tests assumptions of policy interventions for ending homelessness. Simulations suggest that prevention provides a leverage point within the system; small efficiencies in keeping people housed yield disproportionately large reductions in homelessness. A need exists for policies that ensure reliable delivery of coordinated prevention efforts. A complex systems approach identifies capacities and constraints for sustainably solving homelessness.
Foreword by Nan Roman, President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness This book explains how to end the U.S. homelessness crisis by bringing together the best scholarship on the ...subject and sharing solutions that both local communities and national policy-makers can apply now. In the Midst of Plenty shifts understanding of homelessness away from individual disability to larger contexts of poverty, income inequality, housing affordability, and social exclusion. Homelessness experts Shinn and Khadduri provide guidance on how to end homelessness for people who experience it and how to prevent so many people from reaching the point where they have no alternative to sleeping on the street or in emergency shelters. The authors show that we know how to end homelessness—if we devote the necessary resources to doing so. In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What to Do About It is an excellent resource for policy-makers, professionals in the homeless services system, and anyone else who wants to end homelessness. It also can serve as a text in undergraduate or masters courses in public policy, sociology, psychology, social work, urban studies, or housing policy. "The knowledgeable and thoughtful authors of this book—two brilliant women who know as much as anyone in the country about the nature of homelessness and its solutions—have done a great service by taking us on a journey through the history of homelessness, how our responses have changed, and how we can end it." — Nan Roman, President and CEO National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Shinn and Khadduri's new book is a thorough yet concise examination of what we know about the nature and causes of homelessness, and the crucial lessons learned. This critically important work provides a roadmap to restoring basic housing and income security as viable policy options, in the face of our daunting inequality divide that otherwise threatens millions with destitution and homelessness." — Dennis Culhane, Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania "Marybeth Shinn and Jill Khadduri have combined their significant expertise to create an essential guide about the history of modern homelessness and to offer a clear path forward to end this American tragedy. Their policy recommendations on ending homelessness are culled from the best about what we know works." — Barbara Poppe, Executive Director US Interagency Council on Homeless, 2009-2014
By interweaving the graduates' stories with reflections by other workshop contributors,Sacred Shelterseeks to show that there is no "us" or "them." The whole community suffers when some individuals ...are homeless, and the life skills empowerment program takes the position that everyone must strive to rectify this injustice.
In a metropolis like New York, homelessness can blend into the urban landscape. For editor Susan Greenfield, however, New York is the place where a community of resilient, remarkable individuals are yearning for a voice.Sacred Shelterfollows the lives of thirteen formerly homeless people, all of whom have graduated from the life skills empowerment program, an interfaith life skills program for homeless and formerly homeless individuals in New York. Through frank, honest interviews, these individuals share traumas from their youth, their experience with homelessness, and the healing they have discovered through community and faith.
Edna Humphrey talks about losing her grandparents, father, and sister to illness, accident, and abuse. Lisa Sperber discusses her bipolar disorder and her whiteness. Dennis Barton speaks about his unconventional path to becoming a first-generation college student and his journey to reconnect with his family. The memoirists share stories about youth, family, jobs, and love. They describe their experiences with racism, mental illness, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Each of the thirteen storytellers honestly expresses his or her brokenheartedness and how finding community and faith gave them hope to carry on.
Interspersed among these life stories are reflections from program directors, clerics, mentors, and volunteers who have worked with and in the life skills empowerment program. In his reflection, George Horton shares his deep gratitude for and solidarity with the 500-plus individuals he has come to know since he co-founded the program in 1989. While religion can be divisive, Horton firmly believes that all faiths urge us to "welcome the stranger" and, as Pope Francis asks, "accompany" them through the struggles of life. Through solidarity and suffering, many formerly homeless individuals have found renewed faith in God and community. Beyond trauma and strife, Dorothy Day's suggestion that "All is grace" is personified in these thirteen stories. Jeremy Kalmanofsky, rabbi at Ansche Chesed Synagogue, says the program points toward a social fabric of encounter and recognition between strangers, who overcome vast differences to face one another, which in Hebrew is called Panim el Panim.
WhileSacred Shelterdoes not tackle the socioeconomic conditions and inequities that cause homelessness, it provides a voice for a demographic group that continues to suffer from systemic injustice and marginalization. In powerful, narrative form, it expresses the resilience of individuals who have experienced homelessness and the hope and community they have found. By listening to their stories, we are urged to confront our own woundedness and uncover our desire for human connection, a sacred shelter on the other side of suffering.
Roughly twenty Catholic, Jewish and Protestant congregations and organizations throughout the New York metropolitan area support the workshops with funds, space, food, and/or volunteers.Sacred Shelteroffers a remarkable program's history of healing and hope. In documenting the recovery of fourteen formerly homeless individuals-and suggesting how many other people have benefited from their lives-the book celebrates the transformative power of community building an support.
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