Changing Attitudes Toward the Homeless: The Effects of Prosocial Communication With the Homeless

One hundred, thirty-four undergraduate students participated in a field experiment designed to examine the effects of extended, prosocial communication with homeless persons, upon attitudes toward the homeless problem, of behavioral intentions towards the homeless, and of causal attributions about homelessness. It was expected that prosocial interaction with the homeless would produce shifts in attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the homeless and homelessness and result in greater attributions of external causes to explain homelessness. Nineteen experimental participants worked 15 hours at a local homeless shelter. Their responses to a posttest questionnaire that measured a range of attitudinal and behavioral orientations toward the homeless were compared with control participants who did not work at the shelter. Subsequent analyses furnished strong evidence of positive changes in attitudes and intentions toward homelessness among the shelter workers. These participants evaluated homeless people as less blameworthy and more socially attractive than did control participants; moreover, shelter workers indicated more personal responsibility and behavioral commitment to helping the homeless than control participants. They also perceived the homeless problem to be more serious and were more likely to attribute homelessness to bad luck than control participants. However, the two groups were equally likely to attribute homelessness to various external causes such as the economy, housing costs, and governmental policies. The results are interpreted as having policy implications for volunteer service.     

Perceptions of and Reactions to the Homeless: A Survey of Fourth-Grade,High School,and College Students in a Small Midwestern Community

A total of 459 fourth-graders, high school students, and undergraduates completed a Homelessness Questionnaire developed for use in this study. Although participants generally expressed positive and supportive attitudes toward the homeless, attributing homelessness to either social maladjustment (e.g., drug problem) or negative characteristics (e.g., laziness) within the homeless was positively associated with “fear of and anger toward the homeless” for all groups of participants. In addition, perceptions of and reactions to the homeless were influenced by both the participants’ gender and age group. Although high school and college students’ interest in helping the homeless was associated with various attitudes and reactions (e.g., feelings of sympathy/support), their indication that they had ever helped homeless people (either directly or indirectly) was consistently associated only with the acknowledgment that their mother and father had ever helped homeless people (either directly or indirectly). Among these older participants, homelessness in the United States was rated as a more serious problem at the end of the questionnaire than at the beginning.     

Perceptions of and reactions to the homeless: A survey of fourth-grade, high school, and college students in a small Midwestern community

A total of 459 fourth-graders, high school students, and undergraduates completed a Homelessness Questionnaire developed for use in this study. Although participants generally expressed positive and supportive attitudes toward the homeless, attributing homelessness to either social maladjustment (e.g., drug problem) or negative characteristics (e.g., laziness) within the homeless was positively associated with “fear of and anger toward the homeless” for all groups of participants. In addition, perceptions of and reactions to the homeless were influenced by both the participants’ gender and age group. Although high school and college students’ interest in helping the homeless was associated with various attitudes and reactions (e.g., feelings of sympathylsupport), their indication that they had ever helped homeless people (either directly or indirectly) was consistently associated only with the acknowledgement that their mother and father had ever helped homeless people (either directly or indirectly). Among these older participants, homelessness in the United States was rated as a more serious problem at the end of the questionnaire than at the beginning.     

Homeless mothers and depression: misdirected policy.

This paper is a critique of recent service-intensive shelter programs for homeless mothers and the policies that underlie these shelters. We first document the process by which mental health problems and family homelessness became so closely but mistakenly linked. We then demonstrate empirically that shelter programs for homeless families nonetheless presume that mental health problems are part of the causal nexus of family homelessness and indiscriminately deliver mental health services to homeless mothers. Simultaneously, shelter programs encourage the isolation of their residents from what they presume to be their "problematic" social networks. We show that, while mental health services had little impact on depression levels among homeless mothers, isolation from social networks did increase depression among homeless mothers. Our findings suggest that policy should put more emphasis on rapid reintegration into the community through providing housing, and it should put less emphasis on providing services.     

The New Sisters of the Road: Homeless Women and Their Children

ABSTRACT

This article examines the growing social problem of homeless women and their children. It provides a historical perspective, reasons for the increased incidence of family homelessness, the negative effects of homelessness on women and children, and programmatic responses. It also makes recommendations for effective program services and policy reforms. It urges family social workers to adopt a policy advocacy orientation. The article concludes that there is a need for further research to separate causes from effects when studying homeless women and children, and that researchers need to attend to the significance of gender for the social problem of family homelessness.     

Informal Shelter Providers: Low Income Households Sheltering the Homeless

Despite the important role they play in preventing homelessness, those who shelter people who can not afford housing of their own have been neglected by researchers. This study examines the characteristics of these low income informal shelter providers. While informal shelter providers were similar to a comparison group of low income households that did not shelter others, there were also significant differences between the two groups. Informal shelter providers were more much more likely to live in single family dwellings, they were more likely to be long-term residents of the community, they were more likely to have experienced homelessness themselves, and they devoted a disproportionate share of their incomes to housing.     

No Place Like Home: A Study of Two Homeless Shelters

Homelessness is one of the most pressing social problems today. Society has responded to the problem with the creation of homeless shelters. yet, the nature of the operation of the shelter is not defined. This study explored the operations of two single adult homeless shelters to understand how they operate in addressing the problem of homelessness. The study identified two different types of services, one called "house" and the other ((home." House services provided basic food, shelter, and linkage to social services, which fulfilled the basic definition of the problem of homelessness as defined by the Institute of Medicine. Home services provided the basic services of house but also went one step beyond by providing these services within the context of a supportive environment, thus creating informal social supports. The study discusses the implications of each of these modalities in addressing the problems associated with people who are homeless as well as the differences in policies and structures which contribute to one shelter providing house and the other home services.     

Attitude Shifts: A Qualitative Analysis of Students' Awareness and Reaction to the Homeless

Abstract

Perceptions toward homelessness among 23 undergraduates were explored through individual, semi-structured interviews. Several higher-education institutions have incorporated non-traditional learning components to promote altruism and empathy among students toward the poor and homeless. We focused on one Midwestern university's experiential approach that had a “poverty-immersion” experience within a selected course. We explored how the poverty-immersion weekend altered undergraduates' perceptions of the poor and persons in homeless milieu. Students evidenced marked alterations in their understandings of the homeless: dispelling assumptions to consider individuals in light of personal and circumstantial situations that led to their states of homelessness, and the holistic nature of their needs. Students were challenged to reconsider the attitudes towards the homeless as expressed by those in the middle-class socioeconomic status.     

Characteristics of Homeless Jail Inmates: Implications for Social Work

This study set out to validate the hypothesis (belief) that homeless people were likely to commit minor offenses as solutions to their conditions. Jails, and maybe prisons, would provide three meals a day, a place to sleep, and minimal health care-especially during the winter months. Instead, the data did not support the hypothesis. Contrary to the reported practices of some homeless people in Colorado who are described as committing non-serious but timed offenses to go to jail, it found a homeless population in jail who give a literal interpretation to the political phrase “the invisible people.” They were not in jail because they were homeless, but instead they were in jail for serious crimes (murder, rape, drugs, robbery) and their homelessness was a side fact Since it was not likely that this group would seek to address or resolve their homelessness, it was recommended that jail social workers identify their needs to them, track them into social welfare networks, with a designated contact person, prior to their release.     

Rural Homeless Shelters: A Comparative Analysis

Although there has been some increased attention to the issue of homelessness and homeless shelter services, little effort has been made to understand the operation of rural homeless shelters. This situation persists despite decades of effort showing that the rural environment provides a very different context for the delivery of services than an urban environment. This study hypothesized that contextual differences in rural environments would produce various strategies of service delivery among homeless shelters. A typology of rural environments was created. Homeless shelters within each of four cells of the typology were selected. Comparative case study analysis provided partial support for the hypothesis.     

“Mom said we had a money maker”: Sexualization and Survival Contexts among Homeless Women

This study examines the lived experiences of a group of homeless women, with particular attention to their “sexualization” and how this frames their interpretations of and responses to their homelessness. A symbolic interactionist approach locates the social construction of femininity with its emphasis on sexualized embodiment within larger structural conditions of gender inequality. The impact of these structural conditions intersects with homelessness for the participants in this study. In‐depth interviews at a homeless shelter reveal the early sexualization that degraded and violated the women, eroding their self‐worth as young girls and, later, as adults. These circumstances shaped their gendered fears and vulnerabilities and influenced the context of their survival.     

Rural Homeless Shelters: A Comparative Analysis

Although there has been some increased attention to the issue of homelessness and homeless shelter services, little effort has been made to understand the operation of rural homeless shelters. This situation persists despite decades of effort showing that the rural environment provides a very different context for the delivery of services than an urban environment. This study hypothesized that contextual differences in rural environments would produce various strategies of service delivery among homeless shelters. A typology of rural environments was created. Homeless shelters within each of four cells of the typology were selected. Comparative case study analysis provided partial support for the hypothesis.     

ARE THE HOMELESS TO BLAME?

Dominant ideology and public arenas theories yield different hypotheses concerning the incidence and antecedents of public beliefs about the causes of homelessness. The analysis reported here, which tests these hypotheses with data from a 1988 national telephone survey, shows that (1) more Americans believe structural rather than individualistic factors cause homelessness, (2) personal statuses like gender, political orientation, and party affiliation significantly influence such causal beliefs, but (3) the single strongest determinant is the perceived presence of—and by implication, exposure to—homeless people in one's own community. Causal beliefs in turn affect policy attitudes: respondents who consider homelessness a structural problem are more likely to favor government action than those believing in individualistic causes. While mixed, the results as a whole provide somewhat greater support for the public arenas perspective.     

Policy Implications from the Study of the Homeless

The article presents contemporary research results, reviews the case histories of selected homeless, discusses inferences deduced from participant observation, and delineates conclusions drawn from an analysis of intake data in facilities for the homeless. Although the problems described by individuals served by the three agencies have different manifestations, the root causes are similar. The data supports the conclusion that although substance abuse and mental illness are often associated with being homeless, they are not usually the principal cause. Clearly the root cause of homelessness is the critical lack of low-cost housing compounded by the inability to find a job. Several complicating factors that contribute to the growing problem of homelessness are also discussed within the context of the increasing importance of the effects of concentrated poverty and the social isolation of the poor. Policy options are outlined that are critical to developing an intelligent response to the problems of homelessness.     

Homeless identities: enacted and ascribed

Homelessness has been a perennial concern for sociologists. It is a confronting phenomenon that can challenge western notions of home, a discrete family unit and the ascetics and order of public space. To be without a home and to reside in public places illustrates both an intriguing way of living and some fundamental inadequacies in the functioning of society. Much homelessness research has had the consequence of isolating the 'homeless person' as distinct category or indeed type of individual. They are ascribed with homeless identities. The homeless identity is not simply presented as one dimensional and defining, but this imposed and ill-fitting identity is rarely informed by a close and long-term engagement with the individuals it is supposed to say something about. Drawing on a recent Australian ethnographic study with people literally without shelter, this article aims to contribute to understandings of people who are homeless by outlining some nuanced and diverse aspects of their identities. It argues that people can and do express agency in the way they enact elements of the self, and the experience of homelessness is simultaneously important and unimportant to understand this. Further, the article suggests that what is presumably known about the homeless identity is influenced by day-to-day lives that are on public display.     

A life course approach to understanding homelessness of shelter residents

ABSTRACT

Using in-depth interviews of 40 residents from a homeless shelter in El Paso, Texas in the United States, this study examines the etiology, processes, and patterns of homelessness by assessing those confronting homeless spells at different time points and for varying reasons. Our study is guided by the research questions: How did residents of homeless shelters experience transitions and turning points of homelessness? What were the coping resources that homeless people drew on to overcome life adversities? Overall, we found that risk accumulation as a result of different traumatic events, such as death of a family member, marital or relationship breakdown, victimization, unemployment, substance addiction, poor mental health, or discrimination confronted in varied contexts, could serve as precursors or consequences that exacerbated the housing crisis over the course of a life. We recommend that efforts geared toward remediating, alleviating, or preventing homelessness be life course driven. It is only through compassion and empathy rather than criminalizing and stigmatizing that we can help stop the triggers and spread of the downward spiral of homelessness.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Research on Recovery from Homelessness

Changing attitudes toward the poor are producing sweeping revisions in public welfare. The homeless population may be particularly affected by stricter guidelines for subsidies and service. This article reports findings from the first 2 years of an ongoing, qualitative, longitudinal study of nine formerly homeless families who received services at a transitional shelter in 1994. The purpose was to explore the extent to which these families were able to maintain self-sufficiency. One year after care, two families were on the verge of homelessness again, and all needed public assistance to meet basic needs. Two years after care, eight families were beginning to attain economic self-sufficiency. Recommendations address programmatic issues, including the need for comprehensive services during the shelter stay and family mentoring during the rehousing process.     

Relationships Between Psychosocial Risks and Stress in Homeless Children

Homeless children are typically exposed to the worst environmental conditions associated with poverty. Despite recent attention to psychosocial risks associated with homelessness, limited attention has been paid to stress-related symptoms in homeless children. Better understanding of homeless children’s experience of stress could point the way toward improvement of services for them. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to assess associations between child psychosocial riskfactors and emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress in homeless children, Twenty-two homeless nlothers of 29 children between the ages of 2 and 10 were surveyed about known psychosocial risks for homeless children and completed the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS), a 17-item measure of stress-related symptoms in children. Findings suggest that the stress-related symptoms of these children are related to the cumulative effects of environmental risk factors. The PEDS appears to be a sensitive measure of stress in children, and its brevity provides an advantage in assessments in high-stress situations. More developmental work with low-SES samples, however, is recommended.     

Relationships Between Psychosocial Risks and Stress in Homeless Children

Homeless children are typically exposed to the worst environmental conditions associated with poverty. Despite recent attention to psychosocial risks associated with homelessness, limited attention has been paid to stress-related symptoms in homeless children. Better understanding of homeless children's experience of stress could point the way toward improvement of services for them. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to assess associations between child psychosocial risk factors and emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress in homeless children. Twenty-two homeless mothers of 29 children between the ages of 2 and 10 were surveyed about known psychosocial risks for homeless children and completed the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS), a 17-item measure of stress-related symptoms in children. Findings suggest that the stress-related symptoms of these children are related to the cumulative effects of environmental risk factors. The PEDS appears to be a sensitive measure of stress in children, and its brevity provides an advantage in assessments in high-stress situations. More developmental work with low-SES samples, however, is recommended.     

Developmental Outcomes of Children of Homeless Substance-Abusing Mothers

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact ofan extended shelter-based child development/family therapy intervention, called Building Blocks, on the development of children of substance- abusing homeless mothers. The homeless children had greater than expected percentages ofdevelopmental deficits in a number of the developmental domains. Those children who participated in the extended child development/family therapy services were one fourth as likely to have a developmental deficit at 12 months compared to children who did not receive these services. Interventions must be intensive and long-term to improve the developmental outcomes of children with multiple risks ofpoverty, homelessness, and family substance abuse.