Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Rapidly placing homeless Veterans with severe mental illness into permanent housing is one important goal of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program; however, no research has tested whether an explicit organizational alignment of this goal with revised practices could improve outcomes. A demonstration project initiated in 2010 to reform housing placement practices in a metropolitan area enabled researchers to compare an explicit “Housing First” program—offering immediate permanent housing without requiring treatment compliance, abstinence, or “housing readiness”—with a treatment-first program for 177 homeless Veterans. The Housing First initiative successfully reduced time to housing placement, …

Amidst concern about the implications of an aging U.S. population, recent evidence suggests that there is a unique aging trend among the homeless population. Building on this, we use data from New York City and from the last three decennial Census enumerations to assess how the age composition of the homeless population—both single adults and adults in families—has changed over time. Findings show diverging trends in aging patterns for single adults and adults in families over the past 20 years. Among single adults, the bulk of the sheltered population is comprised of persons born during the latter part of the …

Homelessness is currently at a demographic crossroad. This presents a unique opportunity for hastening its demise. In the thirty years since homelessness first manifested itself in American cities in its contemporary form, it has ascended to one of the most prominent American social problems. Despite the current push by advocacy organizations to end homelessness, many expect it will always be with us. In its longevity, however, lies the potential for its decline, provided we do not repeat this cycle with a new generation of homeless.