How to Address Homelessness: Reflections from Research

O’Regan, Katherine M.; Ellen, Ingrid Gould; House, Sophie

doi:10.1177/0002716221995158

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Research has demonstrated that mental health and substance use services, while important, do not affect the stability of housing outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness (O'Regan, 2021). Thus, immediate and low-barrier housing should be prioritized (O'Regan, 2021). In a randomized controlled trial of a Housing First intervention for adults with mental disorders in Toronto, it was found that the Housing First approach was strongly associated with rapid transitions to sustained housing: 70.4 percent of Housing First participants versus 27.9 percent of treatment-as-usual participants (Lachaud, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Homelessness Crisis and Responses in Bloomington, Indiana

McQuillan,

Downey

2024

ENGAGE

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This study addresses the complex challenges of homelessness in Bloomington, Indiana. Beacon, Inc., a nonprofit based in Bloomington, plays a pivotal role in providing support to individuals experiencing homelessness in south-central Indiana. Beacon’s approach prioritizes immediate and barrier-free access to shelter and housing while eliminating stringent entry requirements. Beacon offers three distinct programs: Friend’s Place, an emergency shelter; Rapid Re-Housing, facilitating rapid transitions to stable housing; and Crawford Homes, providing permanent supportive housing. This research, conducted in partnership with Beacon, employs a mixed-methods approach to examine homelessness in the city of Bloomington. It includes a literature review, quantitative data analysis from nationwide counts and Beacon’s programs, and interviews with Beacon staff to gain insights into the housing crisis and its unique dynamics in this community. The results underscore the impact of Beacon’s programs in 2022 on individuals experiencing extreme poverty in Indiana’s Region 10, which consists of six south-central counties. Despite the success of these programs, challenges persist for individuals experiencing homelessness, particularly in combating chronic homelessness. Interviews with Beacon staff highlighted additional barriers to housing, including high rents, inflexible landlords, evictions, and entanglement with the criminal justice system. This study suggests the need for diverse strategies, including expanding Housing First programs and supportive housing models, as well as long-term government housing subsidies for low-income renters. These solutions can reduce reliance on emergency shelters and work to prevent chronic/recurrent homelessness. By employing a mixed-methods research approach, this study offers valuable insights into homelessness and housing assistance programs, providing a foundation for future research aimed at addressing homelessness more comprehensively in Bloomington and similar communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Homelessness Crisis and Responses in Bloomington, Indiana

McQuillan,

Downey

2024

ENGAGE

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“…Homelessness is often described as a “crisis”—including a water and toilet “crisis” in wealthy cities and countries of the Global North (Lee et al, 2021; Mitchell, 2020; O'Regan et al, 2021). In this article, we sought to interrogate this “crisis” narrative and shift focus to the dwelling paradox, a produced contradiction of advanced capitalist societies and a space of entrapment in which no home normally means no water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homelessness and water insecurity in the Global North: Trapped in the dwelling paradox

Meehan,

Beresford,

Amador Cid

et al. 2023

WIREs Water

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In this article, we introduce the "dwelling paradox" to explore how the state actively produces water insecurity for people experiencing homelessness in the Global North. We explain that the dwelling paradox is (1) produced by a modernist ideology of public service delivery that privileges water provision through private infrastructural connections in the home; (2) is reproduced by the welfarewarfare state, which has increasingly weaponized public water facilities and criminalized body functions in public space; and (3) is actively contested by some houseless communities, who challenge hegemonic ideals of the "home"-and its water infrastructure-as a private, atomized space. In advancing a relational and spatial understanding of water insecurity, we use the dwelling paradox to illustrate how unhoused people are caught in a space of institutional entrapment that is forged by state power and amplified by anti-homeless legislation. Such spaces of entrapment make it extremely difficult for unhoused people to achieve a safe, healthy, and thriving life-the basis of the human rights to water and sanitation.

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“…Somerville (1992) criticizes the rudimentary definition of homelessness as lack of housing affordability, and expands the definition to include dimensions of privacy and shelter, along with several others, to define what home is and what subsequently will define the lack thereof or homelessness. O’Regan et al (2021) say that homelessness is a traumatic experience for individuals and families who face it as it disrupts their work, health, education, and relationships.…”

Section: Understanding Homelessnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding a home in or through mobile phones: Access and usage patterns among homeless women in shelter-homes of India

Chakraborty,

Garg

2023

Mobile Media & Communication

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With the number of mobile phone subscribers increasing across all sections of society, this paper aims to understand if homeless women in shelter-homes of India have access to mobile phones and, if so, what are their usage patterns. Facilitated by issues ranging from domestic violence to lack of employment to forced migration and even to human trafficking and rape, women residing in the shelter-homes of India have a myriad of stories to tell. Not all of them have been on streets forever and many have the basic literacy to understand how to use a mobile phone. For the purposes of the study, the researchers engaged with women above 18 years of age up to the age of 45 in a series of open-ended interviews to understand their access to mobile phones and contextualize their homelessness within an affordances-based framework for mobile phone access. This paper takes into account the dual barriers of gender and the lack of a home to study the digital divide experienced by homeless women in India, expanding on how both these factors shape their access and usage, eventually bridging the digital divide, and whether mobile phones are required/desired by the women themselves. The study found that the women staying in shelter-homes see a window of hope in their use of mobile phones in the form of an independent financial future or an independent marital life, but the biased perception of using a mobile phone among women hinders women’s access to and use of these devices, which ultimately results in the loss of any kind of opportunity before it has even been explored, perhaps leading to the loss of a chance at a bright future.

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How to Address Homelessness: Reflections from Research

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Understanding the Homelessness Crisis and Responses in Bloomington, Indiana

Understanding the Homelessness Crisis and Responses in Bloomington, Indiana

Homelessness and water insecurity in the Global North: Trapped in the dwelling paradox

Finding a home in or through mobile phones: Access and usage patterns among homeless women in shelter-homes of India

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