Digital Commons Network^™

Community-Level Characteristics Associated With Variations In Rates Of Homelessness Among Families And Single Adults, Jamison D. Fargo, Ellen A. Munley, Thomas H. Byrne, Ann Elizabeth Montgomery, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

Homelessness Research: Shaping Policy And Practice, Now And Into The Future, Dennis P. Culhane, Vince R. Kane, Mark Johnston

Dennis P. Culhane

The Age Structure Of Contemporary Homelessness: Evidence And Implications For Public Policy, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, Thomas Byrne, Magdi Steno, Jay Bainbridge

Dennis P. Culhane

Young Adult Outcomes Of Youth Exiting Dependent Or Delinquent Care In Los Angeles County, Dennis P. Culhane, Thomas Byrne, Stephen Metraux, Manuel Moreno, Halil Toros, Max Stevens

Dennis P. Culhane

This report investigates the young adult outcomes of youth who age-out of or otherwise exit Los Angeles County’s child welfare supervised foster care system and/or juvenile probation system. Two cohorts of young adults from both systems were selected for analysis. Within the two cohorts, this study focuses on three groups of youth exiters: (i) The child welfare (CW) group is comprised of youth who exited from a child welfare out-of-home placement between the ages of 16 and 21; (ii) the juvenile probation (JP) group is made up of youth who exited from any type of juvenile probation supervision between the …

Connecting The Dots: The Promise Of Integrated Data Systems For Policy Analysis And Systems Reform, Dennis P. Culhane, John Fantuzzo, Heather L. Rouse, Vicky Tam, Jonathan Lukens

Dennis P. Culhane

This article explores the use of integrated administrative data systems in support of policy reform through interagency collaboration and research. The legal, ethical, scientific and economic challenges of interagency data sharing are examined. A survey of eight integrated data systems, including states, local governments and university-based efforts, explores how the developers have addressed these challenges. Some exemplary uses of the systems are provided to illustrate the range, usefulness and import of these systems for policy and program reform. Recommendations are offered for the broader adoption of these systems and for their expanded use by various stakeholders.

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 …

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 …

The Homeless Shelter And The Nineteenth Century Poorhouse: Comparing Notes From Two Eras Of Indoor Relief, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

"Miserable, poorly managed, underfinanced institutions, trapped by their own contradictions, poorhouses failed to meet any of the goals so confidently predicted by their sponsors." Michael Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse

Shelters Lead Nowhere, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

The city should take state and Federal financing that goes to the shelters and use it to keep people out of them.

The Quandaries Of Shelter Reform: An Appraisal Of Efforts To "Manage" Homelessness, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

In this article, I describe efforts to manage the capacity of homeless shelter programs in Philadelphia and assess the impact of those efforts on providers and consumers of homeless services. Most reforms have focused on reducing the capacity of the shelter system by reducing the average length of stay of persons in shelter and by providing housing relocation assistance. However, these reforms have been compromised by an inability to contol the demand for shelter, particularly the rate of new admissions , and by the extent of need for housing assistance among homeless and near-homeless people in Philadelphia. Alternative methods of …

Single Room Housing Won't End Homeless, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

SROs might be the solution for some people, including the older and disabled homeless, but many others, including the masses of near-homeless (and soon-to-be-homeless) await a more imaginative solution that gives them a chance at stable household formation, adequately compensated labor, social protection from disability and unemployment, and that supports more diverse and mixed household arrangements than is represented in the proposed SRO solution.