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Bridges And Barriers To Housing For Chronically Homeless Street Dwellers: The Effects Of Medical And Substance Abuse Services On Housing Attainment, Tatjana Meschede

Center for Social Policy Publications

In the winter of 1998/99, after the deaths of 16 homeless people in the streets of Boston attracted wide attention by the media, the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), Dr. Howard Koh, convened a group of I stakeholders serving the homeless street population. The goal of this MDPH Homeless Taskforce was to reduce the number of homeless people dying on the streets as well as to improve service delivery to those homeless individuals most at risk of dying. A wide range of individuals serving or encountering the homeless street population, including homeless outreach teams, law enforcement …

Impact – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Final Evaluation Report, Oscar Gutierrez, John Mcgah

Center for Social Policy Publications

In 2000 the Department of Commerce awarded the Lake County (IL) Department of Planning, Building and Development a Technology Opportunity Program (TOPS) Grant to implement Project IMPACT. The project’s goals were “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of data on homelessness that can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.”

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts …

Hard Numbers, Hard Times: Homeless Individuals In Massachusetts Emergency Shelters, 1999-2003, Tatjana Meschede, Brian Sokol, Jennifer Raymond

Center for Social Policy Publications

Hard Numbers, Hard Times is the fruit of five years of homeless management information systems data collected in homeless emergency shelters serving individuals across Massachusetts. For the first time, comprehensive, reliable statewide data are provided on how many people accessed the system, where people became homeless, what they attributed their homelessness to, how long they stayed in shelter, and where they went when they left. These data are combined with information on demographics, income, special needs and insurance status along with analysis and interviews to provide multiple perspectives on the Massachusetts shelter system.

Emergency Preparedness: A Manual For Homeless Service Providers, Kelly Tobin, Phyllis Freeman

Center for Social Policy Publications

Public attention to "emergency planning" has increased dramatically since 9/11/2001. Out of concern that the population of homeless individuals and families may not have been considered adequately in planning thus far, the Center for Social Policy reviewed what has occurred, sought advice about what would be useful to add to existing material and resources, and proceeded to prepare this Manual. It seemed all too likely that under the already considerable pressure for cities and towns to prepare for threats caused by terrorism, including bioterrorism, that the special characteristics of homeless families and individuals, and of community organizations serving homeless people, …

Homeless Persons' Residential Preferences And Needs: A Pilot Survey, Russell K. Schutt

Sociology Faculty Publication Series

The 2003 Pilot Survey of Residential Preferences and Needs sampled individuals with psychiatric difficulties at three large generic shelters for adult individuals in Boston and one of four transitional shelters funded by the Metro Boston Region of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

 The survey measured: homeless persons’ residential preferences; the residential recommendations of shelter-based clinicians for these homeless persons; clinicians’ assessments of these persons’ living skills and safety.

 Respondents at the DMH shelter were somewhat more satisfied with their shelter and with the people who stayed there than were those at the generic shelters. The DMH shelter …