|
By The Numbers
529
Number of print and broadcast news stories about the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program during June and July, as tracked by the Alliance's Communications and Media Relations Specialist.
|
|
|
|
| Greetings!
The Alliance's Homelessness Research Institute (HRI) is pleased to send the second issue of the Quarterly Research Newsletter. This newsletter is central to HRI's mission to ensure that policymakers, practitioners, and the caring public have access to the best information about trends in homelessness and emerging solutions.
This issue focuses on homelessness data and features an Expert Q&A with Dennis Culhane, Professor of Social Welfare Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, co-author of the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, and co-chair of the Alliance's Research Council. You will also find a summary of the key findings of the 2008 AHAR and the regular research newsletter features: Interactive Map, Policy-Driven Research, and By The Numbers.
Only those who have signed up to receive the Quarterly Research Newsletter are receiving this mailing. If this was forwarded to you or if you are reading this on our website and want to receive the newsletter by e-mail, click here to add "Research Newsletter - Quarterly" as one of your subscriptions.
|
|
Feature: 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report
On July 9, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Leading up to the release, the Alliance was anticipating the report for a few reasons. First, it provides data on the demographics of the users of emergency shelters and transitional housing programs, allowing for a better understanding of who is using these services. Second, it represents the first time that the annual estimates of the demographics are available for comparable time periods in consecutive years. In theory, the availability of consecutive years of this data allows us to determine if the composition of the homeless population is changing. Finally, this is the first national homelessness data collected during the current recession, providing an important glimpse into the impact of the recession on homelessness.
Major Finding
The report shows that homelessness, as reflected in the 2008 point-in-time counts, is virtually unchanged from 2007. The overall count of homeless persons and the counts of family households, persons in families, chronically homeless individuals, and sheltered and unsheltered persons were all within 2 percentage points of their 2007 levels. While on the surface these unchanged results are a bit underwhelming, they are remarkable in the context of the large decreases that the 2007 counts reflected over counts conducted in 2005 and 2006. The abrupt end to the decreasing homelessness levels is in line with the Alliance's expectation that the economy, particularly the high and growing unemployment rate, will lead to in increase in homelessness in the current year and upcoming year.
Alliance Concerns
The Alliance has some concerns about the HMIS-based estimates of emergency shelter and transitional housing users throughout the year. Among other things, the Alliance observed that the statistical uncertainty associated with the estimates is high. This is mainly due to data quality issues and the fact that the reporting localities represent about half of the communities in the country. This makes it hard to interpret changes in these estimates from 2007. It specifically calls into question the reported increases in family homeless that HUD asserts based on these estimates. Another specific concern is about the fluctuation of the unaccompanied youth estimate, which is 60 percent lower in the 2008 AHAR as compared to the 2007 AHAR. Because this is such an important subpopulation, it is important that this data become more consistent.
Current and Future Improvements
There are several improvements expected in future AHAR reports, including data on the new Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) and a new chapter on homelessness among veterans. One of the most promising things about the direction of the AHAR program is the reliance on data from an increasing number of localities, which makes the current report more representative than prior reports. The current report includes HMIS data from more than twice as many communities as the previous report. In addition, the number of communities conducting point-in-time counts in the years that they are not required has increased from 50percent in 2006 to 67percent in 2008. This means that the improvements that communities across the country are making in their point-in-time count methodologies and the quality of the data in their HMIS systems will lead to better reports and increased confidence in the results.
Click here to download the presentation on the 2008 AHAR made by the research team at the 2009 National Conference on Ending Homelessness.
See Research in this Newsletter for a link to download the 2008 AHAR.
|
|
Interactive Map: Homelessness by Geographic Type
 Earlier this month, the Homelessness Research Institute released the first in a series of briefs analyzing the geography of homelessness. This first brief looks at the extent to which homelessness exists in urban and rural areas. Each of the administrative geography units that collect data on homelessness, Continua of Care (CoCs), were analyzed and classified into one of five categories on a spectrum ranging from completely rural to completely urban. The brief reveals that just under 70 percent of CoCs are in the Urban and Mostly Urban categories and just over 82 percent of the homeless population in 2007 was counted in Urban and Mostly Urban CoCs. The brief includes an interactive map with information on homelessness by geographic type across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Click here to view the Interactive Map.
See Research in this Newsletter for links to the Geography of Homelessness report.
|
|
|
Expert Q&A with Dennis Culhane
Dennis Culhane is Professor of Social Welfare Policy at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and is one of the co-authors of the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. He is also the co-chair of the Alliance's Research Council. He joined us for an expert Q&A on the 2008 AHAR. Click here to see a list of his selected publications.
Alliance: The 2008 AHAR (released in July 2009) is the fourth such national homelessness report. What do we know now about homelessness that wasn't known before the first AHAR was released?
Culhane: While prior research has told us a lot about homelessness and its dynamics, most of the results were based on local studies, and we were unsure of their generalizability to the US. We now have some important understandings of the national picture. First, the overall prevalence of homelessness is less than was predicted before. National estimates prior to AHAR put the annual figure closer to 2.5 to 3 million persons, based on local studies that found rates of 1 percent of the population. Its now evident that the number is at least 1.6 million persons, and not likely to be more than 2 million persons annually. The "good" news is that literal homelessness is not as prevalent as previously thought.
The data also confirm that literal homelessness is predominantly a short-lived experience, with average stays of under 20 days for singles and around 30 days for families (within a year period). This was predicted based on the local studies, but we have never had national data to confirm this result. The most recent AHAR showed that average stays had increased from the previous year. This has significance for planning bed demand, the need for expanded exit programs, and a variety of other system planning needs.
We also know more about the prevalence of homelessness among families. About one-third of persons who are homeless annually are in families. On a household basis, families account for 13 percent of the total households who experience homelessness annually. So, on a household basis, homelessness remains predominantly a problem of single men, and some single women, who are not accompanied by children. The absolute number of families who experience literal homelessness is about 160,000 annually, which is much lower than previously expected. So, the good news is that family homelessness seems to be much more within our reach to solve than was previously thought.
Alliance: Other than the major findings that you just highlighted, are there other important findings?
Culhane: There are many other things we have learned that are too numerous to provide extensive comment on, but are worth noting:
- Either our current systems do not capture youth homelessness well, or the problem is much smaller than people have thought. It is probably a combination of these, but this is an area in need of much further study.
- On the supply side, we have nearly equal amounts of transitional housing as shelter nationally, and more transitional housing than emergency shelter for families. Nevertheless we know that people are not using the homeless system in a "continuum" fashion. Very few people use more than one program, or "progress" from emergency to transitional shelter.
- About 20 percent of the single adults who experience a new episode of homelessness (come most recently from a non-homeless location) are coming from jail or a treatment facility. This highlights the national nature of the discharge planning problem, and sets a firm baseline from which we can now track progress.
- The homelessness problem remains much more common among African Americans, accounting for nearly half of the homeless nationally. This has to be studied further to control for the fact that homelessness is higher in larger cities, where poor African Americans are more likely to live. But, it raises concern regarding the disproportionate impact of the housing problem on poor, African American families, and single men and women.
- As data improves, we are learning that more and more of the homeless have disabilities, with 43 percent of adults reported as disabled in the last AHAR. This suggests that there is something terribly awry in the US public disability insurance system. Cash benefits for people who receive SSI is about 45 percent below the poverty level. Perhaps even more importantly, many poor people with primary addiction-related disabilities are not eligible for disability assistance at all, and there remain many other barriers to getting SSI. So, this is an incredibly important policy area, and we can track the progress in reducing homelessness among people with disabilities, by community, through AHAR.
|
|
Policy-Driven Research: Housing Affordability & Foreclosure
In the Spring Research Newsletter, the Policy Driven Research section focused on recent reports documenting the decreasing availability of affordable housing. That theme continues in this issue, with a recently released report on wages and housing affordability by the Center for Housing Policy and a joint report by the Alliance and other national homelessness advocacy organizations on the connection between the foreclosure crisis and homelessness.
Earlier this summer, the Alliance released a joint report with six other organizations that looked at the connection between foreclosures and homelessness. Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009 surveyed 178 organizations that provide services to homeless people and collected information on the reasons people sought out services. The organizations surveyed included shelter providers, transitional housing providers, and food assistance, legal aid, and other homeless service providers. The study found that approximately 5 percent of those who sought out services from housing assistance providers (including shelter and transitional housing) were directly impacted by foreclosures. Strikingly, 79 percent of all organizations surveyed reported that at least some of their clients were seeking services due to foreclosure.
Paycheck to Paycheck is an annual analysis of wages and housing costs in metropolitan areas across the country prepared by the Center for Housing Policy (CHP), the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference. Recently, CHP released the latest figures for its Paycheck to Paycheck interactive online database. This database monitors wage information for more than 60 occupations and compares the median earnings with the income needed to own or rent a home in more than 200 metropolitan areas. While home prices declined between 2007 and 2008, homeownership is still out of reach for many U.S. workers. For workers in more expensive metropolitan areas, renting a two-bedroom apartment is also unaffordable. To see how affordable housing is in your community, visit their online database listed in the Research in this Newsletter section below.
See Research in this Newsletter for links to both of these reports.
|
|
Research In this Newsletter
US Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2009. 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Click here for the report.
National Alliance to End Homelessness. 2009. Geography of Homelessness, Part 1: Defining the Spectrum. Click here for the report.
National Coalition for the Homeless, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, National Alliance to End Homelessness, et al. 2009. Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009. Click here for the report.
Center for Housing Policy. 2009. Paycheck to Paycheck. Click here for the report.
|
|
| |
|
