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Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

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Selected Works

Selected Works

2008

Homelessness

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Accountability, Cost-Effectiveness, And Program Performance: Progress Since 1998, Dennis P. Culhane, Kennen S. Gross, Wayne D. Parker, Barbara Poppe, Ezra Sykes Feb 2008

Accountability, Cost-Effectiveness, And Program Performance: Progress Since 1998, Dennis P. Culhane, Kennen S. Gross, Wayne D. Parker, Barbara Poppe, Ezra Sykes

Dennis P. Culhane

The authors summarize the progress made in the past decade toward making homeless assistance programs more accountable to funders, consumers, and the public. They observe that research on the costs of homelessness and cost offsets associated with intervention programs has been limited to people who are homeless with severe mental illness. But this research has raised awareness of the value of this approach, such that dozens of new studies in this area are underway, mostly focused on "chronic homelessness." Less progress has been made in using cost and performance data to systematically assess interventions for families, youth, and transitionally homeless …


Testing A Typology Of Family Homelessness Based On Patterns Of Public Shelter Utilization In Four U.S. Jurisdictions: Implications For Policy And Program Planning, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, Jung Min Park, Maryanne Schretzman, Jesse Valente Jan 2008

Testing A Typology Of Family Homelessness Based On Patterns Of Public Shelter Utilization In Four U.S. Jurisdictions: Implications For Policy And Program Planning, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, Jung Min Park, Maryanne Schretzman, Jesse Valente

Dennis P. Culhane

This study tests a typology of family homelessness based on patterns of public shelter utilization and examines whether family characteristics are associated with those patterns. The results indicate that a substantial majority of homeless families stay in public shelters for relatively brief periods, exit, and do not return. Approximately 20 percent stay for long periods. A small but noteworthy proportion cycles in and out of shelters repeatedly. In general, families with long stays are no more likely than families with short stays to have intensive behavioral health treatment histories, to be disabled, or to be unemployed. Families with repeat stays …


The Cost Of Homelessness: A Perspective From The United States, Dennis P. Culhane Dec 2007

The Cost Of Homelessness: A Perspective From The United States, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

This paper discusses how researchers and others have analyzed the services histories of persons who have experienced homelessness, as well as their imputed costs. This research has been used both to make visible the ways in which the clients of mainstream social welfare systems (health, corrections, income maintenance and child welfare) become homeless and, complementarily, the impact of people who experience homelessness on the use of these service systems. Most published work in this area has been based on the integration of administrative databases to identify cases and service utilization patterns; some have used retrospective interviews. Results have been used …


The History And Future Of Homeless Management Information Systems, Stephen R. Poulin, Stephen Metraux, Dennis P. Culhane Dec 2007

The History And Future Of Homeless Management Information Systems, Stephen R. Poulin, Stephen Metraux, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

This chapter reviews the history of the development of management information systems in the homelessness program area. Efforts begun in the 1980s and 1990s by individual cities are discussed, as are the Congressional initatives that led to the mandated implementation of such systems in the US. The use of these systems for the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to the US Congress is described, as are potential future uses of HMIS for research, policy and program planning.


Rearranging The Deck Chairs Or Reallocating The Lifeboats?: Homelessness Assistance And Its Alternatives, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux Dec 2007

Rearranging The Deck Chairs Or Reallocating The Lifeboats?: Homelessness Assistance And Its Alternatives, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux

Dennis P. Culhane

Problem: At present, homelessness in the United States is primarily addressed by providing emergency and transitional shelter facilities. These programs do not directly address the causes of homelessness, and residents are exposed to victimization and trauma during stays. We need an alternative that is more humane, as well as more efficient and effective at achieving outcomes. Purpose: This article uses research on homelessness to devise alternative forms of emergency assistance that could reduce the prevalence and/or duration of episodes of homelessness and much of the need for emergency shelter. Methods: We review analyses of shelter utilization patterns to identify subgroups …