Housing Stability and Problem Gambling: Is There a Relationship?

ABSTRACT

Despite negative consequences, few studies have explored problem-gambling risk and housing stability. This article examined whether gamblers with stable housing would be at lower problem-gambling risk than those with transient/unstable housing. Community-recruited 15- to 85-year-old gamblers (n = 312) provided structured telephone interviews of their gambling problems, substance and psychiatric conditions, and sociodemographics, including current living situations. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, Text Revision gambling criteria classified three gambling groups. Results show that for every one non-problem gambler, 0.24 subthreshold gamblers experienced stable housing (95% CI = 0.08–0.79). Future research necessitates further delineation of the relationship of housing stability and problem-gambling risk.     

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI): Who gets back in?

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, or commonly known as HOPE VI, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has a mission to rebuild severely distressed public housing. In general the goals of HOPE VI projects are to improve severely distressed public housing and to improve the lives of its residents. While evidences around the country either lend support to these goals, or find anomalies, we find severe contradictions in a specific mid-south HOPE VI project. The question investigated is whether one particular HOPE VI project was efficacious in accomplishing these goals or was it deleterious to the residents and to what extent. The study began with straightforward comparisons of the original residents and the residents selected for resettlement in a HOPE VI reconstruction project. The investigation continued with a regression analysis of the factors that were significant in determining if a head of household was accepted for resettlement. The results of this analysis clearly demonstrate that there is a bias in the selection of those individuals accepted for resettlement.     

“Work Units” and the Commodification of Housing: Observations on the Transition to a Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics

Housin9Reforms:AWindowontheTransitiontoaMarketEconomvThe"workunits"phenomenonherereferstoworkers'dependenceontheirworkplaceorganizationstlnderaplannedeconomy(Walder,l986,l992;Bian,l994).Beforethereforms,urbanhousinginChina,whichwasbuiltbythestateandalloca…     

Conditionality in the context of housing-led homelessness policy: Comparing Australia’s Housing First agenda to Scotland’s “rights-based” approach

Homelessness services and policy have historically tended to be organised by an explicitly conditional logic, wherein people experiencing homelessness must prove their “housing readiness” before accessing settled housing. This model has been robustly challenged in recent decades by “housing-led” approaches that ostensibly eschew conditionality and prioritise the rapid rehousing of people experiencing homelessness. Various countries now include housing-led approaches in the national policy frameworks, including Australia, which overhauled its approach to homelessness in 2008, and Scotland, where a housing-led approach is supported by a legal right to housing for homeless households. Notwithstanding this policy shift, conditionality remains an enduring feature of responses to homelessness in both jurisdictions. This paper sheds light on this phenomenon by comparing the Australian experience with that of Scotland. We demonstrate how conditionality remains a feature of both jurisdictions; however, there is greater effort in Scotland to identify and minimise conditionality, whereas in Australia it is able to persist relatively unchallenged. We conclude with some reflections on what Australia can learn from Scotland’s relative success, highlighting the importance of a national-level policy framework and an adequate affordable housing supply.