Community-Based Research Commons^™

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) In Fy2022, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents findings and recommendations from an evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and implemented in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program was initially part of the Governor’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which ended in the latter half of FY2022 and is continuing as an intervention to support housing stability. The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised …

How Peer Support Specialists Uniquely Initiate And Build Connection With Young People Experiencing Homelessness, James Erangey, Connor Marvin, Danielle Maude Littman, Meredith Mollica, Kimberly Bender, Tom Lucas, Tara Milligan

Graduate School of Social Work: Faculty Scholarship

Young people experiencing homelessness are often apprehensive to engage in conventional service systems due to prior mistreatment by providers and others in their lives, as well as stigma associated with accessing services. Even when relationships between service providers and young people are initiated, they often end prematurely. Mutual aid, or peer-to-peer support, has a long and promising history within the mental health field, yet has received little empirical attention in work with young people experiencing homelessness. The present study used participatory qualitative methods to understand how peers uniquely initiate and build connection with young people experiencing homelessness. Through interviews and …

Wood County Project Connect: Final Report For Event Held October 15, 2014, Melissa W. Burek, Mamta Ojha, Morgan Fair

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Project Connect is an outreach and an awareness raising event based on a model endorsed by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. The event is an opportunity to inform the community about the need that exists, as well as a chance to address that need. Project Connect (PC) is designed to provide immediate goods and services to at risk individuals in one day at one location. Our report presents that descriptive data and evaluation of a PC event that occurred in October of 2014 in Wood County, Ohio.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #2: Crime And Politics, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

This report examines regional and sub-regional perceptions of crime and politics from the 2015 Life In Hampton Roads survey (LIHR 2015) conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center. Data from prior years is also provided when available to show comparisons in responses over time. Responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender, and phone usage (cell versus land-line) to be representative of the Hampton Roads region.

Opinion: Too Many Veterans With Children Are Still Homeless, Christopher R. Fee, Joshua L. Stewart

English Faculty Publications

Don’t ignore homeless veterans.

As we pause this Veterans Day to reflect on those who have sacrificed in the service of our country, let us not neglect to address the plight of those who have returned to a civilian life with far less promise than they have every right to expect. [excerpt]

Moving Home: An Evaluation, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is carrying out an analysis of data on the housing situations of participants in the Moving Home program, which is run by the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) in New York City (NYC). BRC is one of the largest, most comprehensive social service agencies in NYC, offering a client-focused continuum of 27 programs that serve 2,600 individuals daily. Launched in 2007, BRC’s Moving Home initiative applies an individualized, low-threshold model to transitioning chronically homeless men and women from the streets to permanent housing.

Our National Shame, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

I spend a lot of time with my students working at soup kitchen and homeless shelters, and each winter, when it gets really cold and dark, my thoughts more often turn back to Dick. Dick died on Jan. 31, 1988. He was a veteran who served in Germany in the 1950s and was a graduate of St. John's University in New York, where his father has been an Engligh professor.

Dick had completed most of the work for his MBA during a career which included positions at Procter & Gamble, Federated Department Stores, and National Cash Register. At the time …

Challenging Homelessness, Elizabeth D. Marshall

SURGE

I had been homeless for about 28 hours. I sat on a sidewalk in Georgetown with a friend holding a cardboard sign that read, “Put a Smile on Our Faces” with a Dunkin Donuts cup at our feet. In the two and a half hours we sat there, hundreds of people passed, hundreds of people avoided eye contact, hundreds of people detoured around the lamppost on the street side of the sidewalk. A few people glanced at our sign. [excerpt]

Homelessness: Causes, Culture And Community Development As A Solution, Kaitlin Philipps

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to explain the reasons that homelessness occurs, and how it is currently being dealt with in public policy. Triggers and predictors of homelessness are explored and it is shown that triggers are almost always compounded, indicating a multitude of factors that lead to homelessness. The culture and community surrounding the homeless lifestyle is seen as playing a significant role in how the individual copes with their homelessness. The norms and values of their culture are investigated and its role in rehabilitation is explored. Current institutions for helping the homeless are analyzed for different success rates. Additionally, initiatives …

Assessing Community Progress On The Blueprint To End Homelessness, Kevin Whiteacre, Kenneth Colburn, Cristie Cole, Deanna Hazel, Ryan Mcclarnon, Bradley Vogelsmeier, Monica Williams, Wei Xie

Sociology

In 2002, the Indianapolis Housing Task Force published the Blueprint to End Homelessness, an ambitious 10-year strategy to end homelessness in Indianapolis by 2012. The Blueprint called for regular reports and evaluation of progress toward the Blueprint’s goals. The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP), charged with moving the Blueprint forward, has completed its own annual Community Progress Reports for 2009, 2010, and 2011. This report does not seek to replicate or evaluate these or any of the many previous reports CHIP has facilitated. We take what is presented in the previous reports as accurate and eminently useful. The …

Homeless Over 50: The Graying Of Chicago's Homeless Population, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Christine George, Marilyn Krogh, Dennis Watson, Judith Wittner

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

This is a report of a 2-year collaborative study of homeless people aged 50 to 64 in Chicago between Loyola University Center for Urban Research and Learning and the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness. This study had three goals: To obtain a demographic profile of people who are homeless in Chicago and are between the ages of 50 and 64; to understand how the various systems designed to serve this population do and do not meet their needs; and to begin to suggest a range of policy and programmatic responses to meet the needs of this population. Information for this …

United Power For Action And Justice: Breaking The Cycle Of Homelessness Reports - Policy Brief, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Christine George, Chiara Sabina, Aparna Sharma

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

This is a story of two groups of determined people with intersecting interests. Group one: a dozen leaders within United Power for Action and Justice who set out to prove their conviction, that homelessness is one symptom of a complex of issues that destabilizes individuals and communities. Group two: persons who are homeless and struggle daily to “fit in” to a landscape that is, more and more, structured to shut them out. In 2000, a cluster of leaders within United Power organized member institutions in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago, and initiated a relationship with Congressman John Porter …

Experiencing Homelessness In Bloomington-Normal, Illinois: Resources And Needs For Shelter And Supportive Services, Beverly A. Beyer, Sharon M. Mills

Graduate Research-Sociology and Anthropology

In August 2002, The Salvation Army commissioned the Applied Social Research Unit (ASRU) of Illinois State University to conduct research about homelessness, housing needs and availability, and resources and needs for supportive services. The Salvation Army of Bloomington, Illinois, plans to rebuild its current homeless shelter, Safe Harbor. The primary goal of ASRU’s research and this report is to inform The Salvation Army’s plans for shelter design, utilization, and associated programming. (A separate addendum to this report released to The Salvation Army contains information specific to the Bloomington Corps’s and Safe Harbor Shelter’s operations and facilities.) A potential outcome of …

Welfare And Homelessness In Indianapolis: Populations At Risk And Barriers To Self-Sufficiency, Indianapolis, Leslie Lenkowski, David A. Reingold, Wendy Chun-Hoon, Katherine B. Novak, Charles Guthrie, Kenneth D. Colburn

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Who are the homeless in Indianapolis? How has welfare reform affected Indianapolis families who rely on public support? What barriers are preventing these populations from becoming self-sufficient? Two recent studies help answer these questions for policymakers and service providers. This issue brief summarizes the studies’ demographic findings, and the problems that erect barriers to self-sufficiency among the poor in Indianapolis.