Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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Author(s): Thomas Packard
Publication Date: 2019
There is a vast literature on organizational change, but research on a key aspect of organizational change, the tactics used by change leaders, is limited. To address this gap, a questionnaire assessing the use of organizational change tactics has been used to allow an organization's staff to describe an organizational change initiative they had experienced. This study also included an interview with the agency's director of programs, an intervie...
Author(s): M. Rogers, A. Ahmed, I. Madoc-Jones, A. Gibbons, K. Jones, Mark Wilding
Publication Date: 2019
Rates of homelessness and poor mental health present significant challenges across the globe. In this article, we explore how these intersecting issues have been addressed in Wales through Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 through a paradigm shift towards a prevention model. This article reports findings from a study (conducted between 2016 and 2018) which evaluated the processes and impacts of the Act against the backdrop of welfare reform...
Author(s): Ankur Singh, Lyrian Daniel, Emma Baker, Rebecca Bentley
Publication Date: 2019
This study reviews collective evidence on the longitudinal impact of housing disadvantage (based on tenure, precarity, and physical characteristics) on mental health. It is focused on temporally ordered studies where exposures preceded outcomes, a key criterion to establishing causal evidence. This systematic review confirms that prior exposure to housing disadvantage may impact mental health later in life.
Author(s): Nicole Kozloff, Andrew D. Pinto, Vicky Stergiopoulos, Stephen W. Hwang, Patricia O’Campo, Ahmed M. Bayoumi
Publication Date: 2019
Health utility assessments are important for economic evaluations but few instruments have been validated in homeless people with mental illness. We examined the convergent validity of the EuroQol-5 Dimension 3-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L) as a measure of quality of life in homeless adults with mental illness.
Author(s): Katrina Milaney, Hasham Kamran, Nicole Williams
Publication Date: 2019
This article aims to evaluate and assess the health issues of Calgarians over the age of 50 who are experiencing chronic homelessness, determine their unmet service needs, and assess whether there are predictors of chronic homelessness (such as childhood trauma) that could be addressed with changes to policy or service delivery. Three hundred participants were recruited from emergency shelters, as well as a from a small group of rough sleepers in...
Author(s): Sarah Benbow, Cheryl Forchuk, Helene Berman, Carolyne Gorlick, Catherine Ward-Griffin
Publication Date: 2019
Lack of affordable housing, poverty, and intimate partner violence are among the most common reasons for homelessness among mothers and their children in Canada. Mothers experience social exclusion in compounding and debilitating ways. In the literature on social exclusion and health, rarely is safety recognized as a prominent component of social exclusion. The purpose of this critical narrative study was to better understand the unique narrative...
Author(s): Margaret Moore-Nadler, Clista Clanton, Linda Roussel
Publication Date: 2019
Utilizing a hermeneutic philosophical approach, the researchers explored the perceptions and experiences of people who are homeless in Mobile, Alabama, receiving health care and interacting with health care providers. Using the voice of the participants, discussions among the researchers, and supporting literature reinforcing key concepts, a framework was created illustrating the lived experience. The following themes were identified: social dete...
Author(s): Amanda Aykanian, Sondra J. Fogel
Publication Date: 2019
Communities across the USA use anti-homeless policies to reduce the presence of homeless people. Such policies commonly criminalize behaviors associated with homelessness, such as panhandling, loitering, and sleeping outside. These policies are typically justified as a way to improve the quality of life for community members, failing to regard homeless people as part of the community. This chapter has four primary aims. First, it presents an over...
Author(s): Sarah L Canham, Karen Custodio, Celine Mauboules, Chloe Good, Harvey Bosma
Publication Date: 2019
Though hospitals are a common location where older adults experiencing homelessness receive health care, an understanding of the types of supports needed upon hospital discharge is limited. We examined the unique characteristics of older homeless adults and the health and psychosocial supports required upon hospital discharge. Guided by principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), we conducted 20 in-depth, semi-structured intervie...
Author(s): Christina Wusinich, Lynden Bond, Anna Nathanson, Deborah K.Padgett
Publication Date: 2019
Despite a legally-mandated right to shelter and extensive outreach efforts, an estimated 3,675 homeless individuals were living on the streets of New York City in 2018. Through interviews with 43 unsheltered homeless individuals in the borough of Manhattan (age range 21–74 years), this qualitative study examined barriers they face in accessing housing and other services as well as experiences surviving on the street. Through thematic analysis of...
Author(s): Rachel M. Manning, Ronni Michelle Greenwood
Publication Date: 2019
Service innovation for adults experiencing mental illness and homelessness typically involves shifting from treatment-led, staircase models toward recovery-oriented, Housing-First models. Aligning frontline service providers’ values to those embedded within newer models is an important, but under-investigated, influence on the innovation process. To assess values alignment in this context, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with...
Author(s): Ahyoung Song, Suzanne L. Wenzel, Yusun Cho
Publication Date: 2019
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the association between child abuse and substance use among homeless women based on a framework of General Strain Theory, which emphasizes the strong relationship between deviant behaviors and personally experienced strain. In this study, as the strain associated with substance use, child abuse experience in the past was assessed. This research tested three hypotheses about (a) the association bet...
Author(s): Bridget Osei Henewaah Annor, Abe Oudshoorn
Publication Date: 2019
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a scoping review on the health challenges of families experiencing homelessness. There is a bi-directional relationship between health and homelessness in that poor health can increase the risk of housing loss, and experiencing homelessness is bad for one’s health. The experience of homelessness differs between populations and this review focuses on families as one of the fastest growing segm...
Author(s): Patrick J. Fowler, Katherine E. Marcal, Jinjin Zhang, Orin Day, John Landsverk
Publication Date: 2019
The present study investigates the nature of homelessness among at-risk youth transitioning into adulthood. Current policies use multiple definitions to determine eligibility for homeless services among adolescents and emerging adults. Conflicting criteria demarcate different thresholds along an assumed continuum ranging from frequent mobility to living on the streets. Multiple eligibility criteria impede cohesive service provision and prevention...
Author(s): Sarah L. Canham, Andrew Wistera, Eireann O’Dea
Publication Date: 2019
The objective of this study is to understand the experience of Metro Vancouver’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy-funded Housing First program and how it is functioning from the perspective of a representative sample of providers and clients who deliver and receive HF services.
Author(s): Clare Watson, Lizette Nolte, Rachel Brown
Publication Date: 2018
Trusting and empathic relationships between project workers and people experiencing homelessness (PEH) form the cornerstone for their needs to be met. However, under the UK austerity agenda project workers practice in a context of increasing pressure and limited resources; with relationships often characterised by conditionality and disconnection. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study investigating project workers’ experiences of buil...
Author(s): J. Serrato, H. Hassan, C. Forchuk
Publication Date: 2019
The unique experiences of homelessness for Indigenous Veterans are currently understudied. The purpose of this review was to assess the current literature on homelessness among Indigenous Veterans, to identify the gaps in the existing knowledge base and to provide an insight into future research.
Author(s): Matti Wirehag
Organization: Faculty of social Sciences, Department of social work; University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Publication Date: 2019
Abstract
The aim of this study is two-fold. First, the aim is to map and explore the extent and variation of local homeless service systems in Sweden’s munici- palities. Second, the goal is to explore the possibilities and limits of using available secondary data on homelessness and homelessness housing services, when analysing local homeless service systems. The study is based on an exploratory cross-sectional approach and uses data from several...
Author(s): Lola Vives
Organization: Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, France
Publication Date: 2019
Abstract
This research note focuses on the client selection process of the “Un chez-soi d’abord” programme, an implementation of Housing First services in France first carried out in 2011. At the end of 2016, a randomized control trial demonstrated the efficiency of this programme. It has been maintained and expanded to new localities in France. This new step from public authorities involves practical changes in the recruitment and selection proc...
Author(s): Stephanie E. Armes, James R. Muruthi, William H. Milroy and Jay A. Mancini
Organization: University of Georgia, USA; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA; Veterans Aid, London, England
Publication Date: 2019
Abstract
This study explores homeless veterans’ past and present lives while paying close attention to their family and friend interactions. Men who were homeless (n=37) in the United Kingdom (UK) and residing in a shelter focused on ex-Servicemen were interviewed to explore their experiences of stress and resilience. Data were collected using in-depth interviews focused on past experiences with adversity, present experiences of homelessness, and...