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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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Trends and Patterns of Homelessness
Alvaro Cortes
The number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has declined modestly over the past ten years, driven in large part by reductions in the number of homeless veterans and individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness. Modest declines were also seen in the percentages of all people experiencing homelessness as individuals and of people experiencing homelessness as part of a family with children, although the...
Veterans Research Brief
Tom Albanese
In recent years, we have made substantial strides in housing veterans and preventing returns to homelessness. Those recent successes can be attributed to several factors, including a sufficient amount of investment, a clear focus on measurable goals and attainable system features, and the efforts of communities across the country to organize systems that assure ready access to low-barrier shelter and rapid re-housing...
Children and Families Research Brief
Michelle Wood
Research evidence indicates that homelessness among families is more likely to be influenced by economic cycles compared with individual homelessness. However, the similarities between families who become homeless and other low-income families make it difficult to design a prevention program that effectively and efficiently targets those families who are most at risk. For those families who do become homeless, ample evidence...
Rates and Risk Factors for Homelessness After Successful Housing in a Sample of Formerly Homeless Veterans
Research suggests that housing combined with mental health services is an effective intervention for helping homeless persons with psychiatric disorders, addictive disorders, or both to access and maintain community housing . Once housed, a substantial proportion of these individuals maintain community housing for significant periods. In a five-year longitudinal study of 2,937 homeless persons with serious mental illness,...
Health Care and Public Service Use and Costs Before and After Provision of Housing for Chronically Homeless Persons With Severe Alcohol Problems
Mary E. Larimer
Daniel K. Malone
Michelle D. Garner
Chronically homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems often have multiple medical and psychiatric problems and use costly health and criminal justice services at high rates. In this population of chronically homeless individuals with high service use and costs, a Housing First program was associated with a relative decrease in costs after 6 months. These benefits increased to the extent that participants were retained...
Landscapes of Despair: From Deinstitutionalization to Homelessness
Michael J. Dear
Michael Dear and Jennifer Wolch examine the emergence of urban ghettos of the socially dependent--an unforeseen "solution" to the problem of developing community-based care for a variety of service-dependent groups, including the mentally and physically disabled, ex-offenders, and addicts. Based on detailed case studies drawn from several cities in Canada and the United States, Landscapes of Despair is a comprehensive...
I Built My House of Hope: Abused Women and Pathways Into Homelessness
Show less Leslie M. Tutty
Cindy Ogden
Bianca Giurgiu
Gillian Weaver-Dunlop
Violence from intimate partners is a serious reality for a number of women. For some abused women, leaving becomes a path to homelessness. In fact, when abused women and their children leave their homes because of partner abuse, they become homeless even if they subsequently seek residence in a shelter for woman abuse. This project interviewed 62 women from across Canada who had been abused by partners and were homeless at...
Problem Gambling and Homelessness: Results from an Epidemiologic Study
Lia Nower
Karin M. Eyrich-Garg
David E. Pollio
Carol S. North
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of gambling disorder and comorbid psychiatric disorders in a homeless population and identify features related to potential subtypes. At baseline, participants were administered a structured interview including socio-demographic sections of the National Comorbidity Study (NCS) interview; seven diagnostic sections of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS); the...
An Overview of Global Homelessness and Strategies for Systemic Change
Katherine Johnson
Mark McGreevy
Molly Seeley
Homelessness is a problem that can be solved with the right mix of program interventions, well-coordinated local systems, and effective policy. We know homelessness can be ended because there are cities that have ended it. Others have seen meaningful reductions in homelessness among certain targeted populations, such as chronically homeless individuals or veterans. In broad terms, the processes and interventions required to...
A Global Framework for Understanding and Measuring Homelessness
Volker Busch-Geertsemaa
Dennis Culhane
Suzanne Fitzpatrick
There is no globally agreed definition of homelessness. Even within countries, the topic can be contentious. At the same time, we know we can’t measure and solve a problem we can’t define, so in 2015 IGH made developing shared language on homelessness a top priority. The result of this project is the IGH Framework, the product of collaboration from researchers, policy experts and on-the-ground leaders in six continents. While...
A Homeless Bill of Rights (Revolution)
Sara K. Rankin
This article examines an emerging movement so far unexplored by legal scholarship: the proposal and, in some states, the enactment of a Homeless Bill of Rights. These new laws are a lens to re-examine storied debates over positive and social welfare rights. Homeless bills of rights also present a compelling opportunity to re-examine rights-based theories in the context of social movement scholarship. Specifically, could these...
Exploring the Intersections: Immigrant and refugee women fleeing violence and experiencing homelessness in Canada
Linda Baker
Jassamine Tabibi
Emerging research from across Canada points to a significant relationship between immigrant and refugee women fleeing violence and experiences of homelessness. This report is based on the meeting hosted by Employment and Social Development Canada and the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children that took place in Ottawa, Ontario on March 30th, 2017. The meeting explored the intersections...
The homeless individual’s viewpoint: Causes of homelessness and resources needed to leave the sheltered environment
Johnetta Hardin
Diane E Wille
The current study is an investigation of homelessness from the viewpoint of the homeless, to determine the extent homeless individuals can provide information about causes of their homelessness, resources they need to leave the sheltered environment and attitudes about their current living arrangements. The 51 male and 52 female homeless participants in this study provided information about causes, resources needed and...
Characterizing the Nutritional Health of Unaccompanied Homeless Youth
Stephanie Lynne Vandergriff
There is a lack of information about the nutritional health of homeless youth, one of the most vulnerable populations within society. Nutritional health influences the risk for poorer health outcomes. Homeless youth experience various challenges that could be related to their nutritional health. The goal of this study is to characterize the nutritional and dietary status of a sample of homeless youth in a Midwestern city in...
Step-by-Step Guide to Estimate Rural Homelessness
Zain Abedin
This document has been developed by the Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN) to provide a step-by-step guide to estimate homelessness in rural communities in Canada. This guide incorporates cost-conscious, efficient, and reliable practices specific to rural communities and their surrounding areas. Homelessness is often hidden in rural communities and rarely looks like it does in urban centres. Consequently, rural...
The Relative Influence of Injunctive and Descriptive Social Norms on Methamphetamine, Heroin, and Injection Drug Use Among Homeless Youths: The Impact of Different Referent Groups
Anamika Barman-Adhikari
Jaih Craddock
Elizabeth Bowen
Rohan Das
Eric Rice
The current study assessed the relative influence of both injunctive and descriptive norms in the context of different referent groups (i.e., family, street peers, home-based peers, and staff members) on past 30-day methamphetamine, heroin, and injection drug use behaviors of homeless youth. Cross-sectional data (N = 911) were collected from three drop-in centers in Los Angeles, California. The study consisted of two parts: a...
SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR): Disability Application Outcomes Among Homeless Adults
Evan M. Lowder
Sarah L. Desmarais
Shevaun D. Neupert
Melissa A. Truelove
The SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) program has been shown to increase access to Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits among homeless adults. However, little empirical data exist on how or for whom SOAR achieves successful application outcomes. This study investigated applicant and application characteristics associated with disability application outcomes among homeless...
The Rural Homeless: An Empirically Neglected Community
Dale Payment
No segment of America’s vulnerable population is as invisible as are the rural homeless. This invisibility, along with other factors, has contributed heavily to this group’s social neglect. Society’s mental image of the homeless is set in an urban context, overwhelmingly represented by unemployed, disheveled men who inhabit street corners or freeway off-ramps. When asked about the homeless, the public conjures up visions of...
Costs of services for homeless people with mental illness in 5 Canadian cities: a large prospective follow-up study
EA Latimer
D Rabouin
Z Cao
A Ly
G Powell
T Aubry
J Distasio
SW Hwang
JM Somers
V Stergiopoulos
S Veldhuizen
EEM Moodie
A Lesage
PN Goering
Limited evidence on the costs of homelessness in Canada is available. We estimated the average annual costs, in total and by cost category, that homeless people with mental illness engender from the perspective of society. We also identified individual characteristics associated with higher costs.  As part of the At Home/Chez Soi trial of Housing First for homeless people with mental illness, 990 participants were assigned to...
Does the Money Matter? Analyzing the Relationship Between the Change in Veteran Expenditures and the Changes in Veteran Suicide and Homeless Rates
Michael Joe Martinez
Homelessness and suicide are two issues that plague the U.S. veteran community. This research addresses the funding allocated toward veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs and the changing veteran homelessness as well as suicide incidences. Previous research has indicated that social programs can benefit veterans at high risk for suicide or homelessness. It is theorized that an increased budget for the Department...