Supportive Housing for Addicted,Incarcerated Homeless Adults

ABSTRACT

Homeless populations often suffer from mental illness, substance abuse, and criminality. Interventions, such as supportive housing, can have positive impacts, although benefits can be limited. This study examined outcomes for clients (N = 102) of a new supportive housing intervention. Use of formal treatment, jail contact, and community stability were compared pre- and post-housing. Jail bookings and residential substance abuse treatment significantly declined post-housing, while clients improved in income level, access to food, and housing stability. Results from official justice and treatment system data suggest that supportive housing can lead to significant changes. Future research is necessary to understand the relationship between client characteristics and outcomes.     

Moving On From Supportive Housing (MOSH): Development and evaluation of a transitional skill-building curriculum for providers helping residents exit homeless services

This article describes the development and evaluation of MOSH (Moving On From Supportive Housing), a transitional skill-building curriculum for providers helping residents exit homeless services to mainstream housing without embedded supports. In this evaluation, we assess the feasibility, acceptability, fit, and potential efficacy of the MOSH curriculum to improve proximal provider-level outcomes, including self-efficacy to provide MOSH-related independent living skills and supports. Homeless-services providers (N = 49) from a range of programs and settings participated in the training. Findings from focus groups and pre- and posttest surveys indicate high levels of overall satisfaction with the training. The majority of trainees perceived the training to be useful to their work and potentially useful for service recipients, felt the training would fit well within their existing day-to-day work, and said they were very likely to use MOSH skills in such work. Statistically significant improvements in self-efficacy regarding all skills but one were also found. MOSH holds promise as an intervention that can enhance provider practice and promotion of independent living skills in homeless services. Although these initial findings on MOSH are encouraging, further research will be needed to evaluate provider knowledge gains and effective use of these skills in practice.     

Homeless Youths’ Interests in Social Action via Photovoice

Engaging homeless youth in services is challenging. Novel methods are needed to better retain and empower this population. Photovoice, an innovative form of community-based participatory research, facilitates participants’ use of photography to document their everyday lives and struggles, while advocating for social change. This study examines, among 22 homeless youth, whether and why youth would be interested in participating in Photovoice activities, the types of social issues youth would be motivated to explore, and homeless youths’ opinions about committing to a longer-term, group-oriented project. Photovoice may represent promise in engaging marginalized and difficult-to-retain populations.     

The role of eviction in veterans’ homelessness recidivism*

Eviction is one of the leading causes of homelessness in the U.S.A. Though permanent supportive housing (PSH) helps participants maintain housing, some still leave due to eviction. This study aimed to determine whether eviction is an important predictor of recidivism and time to return to homelessness for participants exiting PSH. The characteristics and post-exit service use of 2802 Veteran PSH participants were analyzed based on exit reason. A Cox proportional hazards survival analysis modeled risk factors for returning to homelessness within 360 days of exit. Compared with other exiters, evicted Veterans remained in the program for less time, were less likely to be receiving service-connected compensation, and used more services – particularly mental health and substance use services – following their exit, and those who returned to homelessness did so more quickly. Identifying participants who might benefit from more intensive services, project-based housing, or income supports may prevent evictions and subsequent returns to homelessness.     

Symbolic violence and the Olympic Games: low-income youth,social legacy commitments,and urban exclusion in Olympic host cities

Drawing on a five-year qualitative study on the impacts of the Olympic Games on homeless and marginally housed youth in two host cities (Vancouver 2010 and London 2012), this paper explores the instances of ‘symbolic violence’ perpetuated by the institutional infrastructure associated with the Olympics. Following Pierre Bourdieu’s use of the term, symbolic violence refers to the manner in which the young people turned dominant notions of what the desirable Olympic city looks and feels like into a sense of their own non-belonging and/or inadequacy, experienced bodily and emotionally. Feeling pressured to vie for elusive Olympic jobs and volunteer positions, and to be less visible to the thousands of tourist-spectators for the Games, youth in both cities reported a defiant mix of frustrated indignation and resigned acceptance that they did not ‘fit’ the image of the global Olympic city that organizers were trying to convey. The paper argues that this social harm, difficult to measure yet real nonetheless, is an important though unintended legacy of the Olympic Games for homeless and marginally housed youth living in its shadows. The paper also calls for a more sustained engagement with Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence in youth studies as a discipline.     

美国政府救助无家可归儿童的机构、职能及运作分析

美国作为联邦制国家,其联邦、州及地方各级政府的权力分配是影响公共救助事业的关键因素。在无家可归儿童救助领域,美国各级政府建立起权责明确的职能部门,并通过项目管理的模式,形成了联邦政府主导、州与地方政府协调管理、非营利组织具体执行的分工协作式的无家可归儿童救助系统。美国政府在无家可归儿童救助事务方面的机构设置、项目运作、成效评估等几方面的经验值得我国在建设流浪儿童救助体系时学习借鉴。     

Voices of Homeless Parents

Abstract

Homeless families with children comprise approximately 40% of homeless people and the fastest-growing group among the homeless. However, the pain and suffering faced by homeless parents, especially single mothers, as providers for and protectors of their children has yet to be documented and understood. In this paper, we illustrate the frustrations, guilt, confusion, and hope of 50 homeless parents staying at three homeless shelters in two large northeastern cities. We hope that a clear understanding of these parents' subjective experiences of homelessness will contribute to the evaluation and improvement of the effectiveness of social work interventions for homeless families.     

Social Work with Homeless Mothers: A Strength-Based Solution-Focused Model

ABSTRACT

Social workers are increasingly called upon to provide services to homeless families, the vast majority of which are mother-headed. Drawing on empirical findings from the literature on homeless families and the practice literature on solution-focused and strength-based practice, this article describes and illustrates how principles and techniques of these two approaches to practice can be used to empower homeless mothers to resolve their housing crisis and restabilize their families after an episode of homelessness. Examples are given for how social workers can use these principles and techniques in various stages of the helping process.     

Factors in the Transition to Homelessness in the Chronically Mentally III

Although there is a great deal of literature on homelessness and mental illness, few studies have examined the factors which may lead to homelessness in the mentally ill. The objective of this research was to examine the factors in the length of time between when a client of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health entered the system and when he or she was first homeless on admission to a service (time before homelessness, TBH). Past psychiatric records of 142 currently homeless clients were examined through the Automated Information System of LACDMH. Results showed that total admissions to any service and total admissions to prison services were predictors of shorter TBH; being younger and being both African-American and female were predictors of longer TBH. TBH shortened dramatically from 1973 to 1993; mental health funding levels for the previous year were significantly correlated with TBH Results show that demographic, clinical, and system variables all impact on homelessness in the chronically mentally ill.