Why do rates of homelessness differ across metropolitan contexts? Only tentative answers to this question are provided by previous investigations due to their reliance on a limited range of settings and independent variables. In an effort to be more comprehensive, we use 1990 Census S-Night data for 335 metropolitan areas to test explanations that stress the local housing market, economic conditions, demographic composition, the safety net, climate, and community transience as potential determinants of homelessness. Our analysis uncovers support for each explanation. However, median rent level has the dominant effect (þ) on metro homelessness rates, followed by the percentage of single-person households (þ). The robustness of these findings is demonstrated and their theoretical, methodological, and policy implications are considered.

Few recent studies of homelessness have focused on the distribution of the phenomenon across different types of community contexts. Nevertheless, claims are often made about the decline of urban skid rows and the increasing spatial ubiquity of the homeless population. Motivated by these claims, our research analyzes 1990 Census S‐night data at multiple geographic levels to determine whether homeless people remain locationally concentrated or have become more dispersed in the contemporary United States. Data from the 2000 Census, though limited in scope, are briefly examined as well. We find that the “visible” homeless are overrepresented in metropolitan and urban portions of the nation, in central cities of metropolitan areas, and in a minority of neighborhoods within these areas. Such an uneven distribution, which favors the concentration over the dispersion perspective, often takes a polynucleated form in large cities. Forces shaping the geography of homelessness are discussed, as are the policy implications and methodological caveats associated with our results.

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While evidence for neighborhood effects on adverse birth outcomes is growing, no studies have examined whether living in a neighborhood impacted by mass incarceration is associated with preterm birth risk. We used modified Poisson regression to test whether residence in a neighborhood impacted by mass incarceration predicted future risk of preterm birth, among African American women. We linked data from the Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Corrections to survey and medical record data from the Life-course Influences on Fetal Environments study (n = 681). We also tested for effect modification by age and marital status. The association between prison admission expenditures and future risk of PTB varied by maternal age at birth, with younger women (< 35) having a modest increase in risk (relative risk (RR) 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99, 1.15), and older (35+ year old) women having lower risk (RR 0.86; 95% CI 0.69, 1.07). The association between the number of prison admissions due to new court cases and future risk of PTB varied by marital status, with evidence that married women may be protected (RR 0.75; 95% CI 0.61, 0.92), while little evidence of association was observed among unmarried women (RR 1.02; 95% CI 0.80, 1.30). The association between residence in an area impacted by mass incarceration and future risk of PTB among African American women may vary by age and marital status. Future research to identify the mechanisms of these associations is warranted.

Urban ethnogenesis is a process by which a group creates and maintains social networks and communication patterns as the basis for institutional and communal life in urban areas. Ethnogenesis is a foundation upon which most historical, urbanward migrations have been built, including the “Great Migration” of African Americans during the first half of this century. Although a period of decreased migration, the Depression was marked by sizeable movement in which nearly 10% of the total African American population moved interregionally. Ethnogenic measures such as NAACP activism, the number of community newspapers directed at African Americans, and the longevity of a chapter of the National Urban League significantly increased migration flows.