The drivers of high health and justice costs among a cohort young homeless people in Australia

Abstract

Our study utilizes Australian survey evidence to estimate the heath and justice costs of a cohort of young homeless people. Health and justice costs for young homeless people are highly skewed with median costs well below mean costs. This is particularly true of justice costs resulting from a relatively high proportion of young homeless people having no interaction with the justice system. Having a diagnosed mental health condition is a primary driver of both health and justice costs. Having been homeless or sleeping rough in the previous year is associated with approximately four times mean health and justice costs compared with not having experienced homelessness. High justice costs are associated not only with having a diagnosed mental health condition homelessness and rough sleeping, but also a high-risk of dependence on one or more drugs or alcohol, identifying as Indigenous and a history of out-of-home care before the age of 18.     

A model of homeless migration: homeless men in Skid Row,Los Angeles

"In this paper a conceptual model of homeless migration is developed that links migration behavior with the coping status of homeless individuals. The model is evaluated by using data drawn from a recent random probability sample of men surveyed in Skid Row, Los Angeles, [California]. Results indicate that homeless migrants tended to be young, never married, white, mentally disabled, and either newly or cyclically homeless individuals. Long-term residents, in contrast, were apt to be older, physically disabled or suffering from a health-related problem, and had been homeless for some time. The dominant reason given for moving was to find a job...." Coping strategies and migration behaviors are also described.     

The Causes of Homelessness Among Older People in England

A comparative study of the causes of new episodes of homelessness among people aged 50 years and over has been undertaken in Boston, Massachusetts, Melbourne, Australia and four English cities. This paper presents the findings from England, where information was collected from 131 respondents and their key-workers about the circumstances and problems that contributed to homelessness. Two-thirds of the respondents had never been homeless before. The many reasons why they became homeless involved interactions between personal disadvantages and weaknesses, negative events and inadequate welfare support services. For some, their behaviour rather than external factors triggered homelessness. Other cases involved deficiencies with the administration of services and social security payments, the failure or limitations of agencies to detect and respond effectively to vulnerability, and poor collaboration or information co-ordination among housing providers and welfare agencies.     

Homeless Women in Public Spaces: Strategies of Resistance

This paper explores homeless women's use of public spaces and buildings in England. In doing so it problematises the spatial boundaries typically presented in the literature and research which suggest homeless women are largely confined to institutional or private spaces of homelessness. The paper argues that homeless women also use highly visible public spaces and semi-private spaces, and that these practices can be conceptualised in terms of resistance. Homeless women challenge the rules associated with occupying public spaces that either directly or tacitly exclude them, and they engage in identity work to resist being labelled as homeless.     

Psychological distress and homeless duration*

We examine whether psychological distress levels vary with homeless and housed duration. We do this using longitudinal data from a national survey of persons facing housing insecurity that, unlike prior studies, is not restricted to those who are currently homeless (or to particular subsets of the homeless), but instead follows a nationally representative sample of Australians experiencing housing insecurity. This allows us to use methods that isolate the effects of changes in time spent homeless and time spent housed on psychological distress holding constant all unobserved person-specific effects that are time invariant. We find that the relationship between psychological distress and homelessness varies by gender and by type of homelessness. Males recently experiencing literal homelessness (i.e. sleeping rough or in crisis accommodation) exhibit the highest levels of distress, but consistent with the adaptation hypothesis, distress levels decline as homeless duration increases. This pattern is not seen when examining a broader notion of homelessness for males. Likewise, there is no clear pattern with regard to homeless duration for females.     

Local Connection Criteria and Single Homeless People's Geographical Mobility: Evidence from Brighton and Hove

In December 2001 Brighton and Hove City Council introduced a set of Local Connection Criteria aimed at stemming the flow of homeless people apparently making their way to the city in search of services. Under the new criteria, only those previously resident in Brighton and Hove can make use of the city's night shelters and hostels. Similar such criteria have recently been introduced elsewhere and represent an important change in local responses to the problems of single homelessness. The paper examines in detail the movements of 41 recently and long-term homeless men interviewed at a night shelter and hostel in Brighton and Hove prior to the introduction of the local connection rule. Finding the majority to have recently moved to the city having become homeless elsewhere, it is suggested that the introduction of such criteria is liable to have a considerable impact on the lives of some single homeless people. Examining the reasons why these men had moved, however, it is suggested that the future movement of single homeless people to the city, or other 'homeless places', is unlikely to be significantly affected by such policies.     

From encampments to hotspots: the changing policing of homelessness in New York City

Abstract

This article examines a shift in language and enforcement around homeless dwellings in New York City that occurred in 2015. Amidst a rising tide of anti-homeless sentiment, city officials and police department administrators switched from calling such dwellings ‘encampments’ to ‘homeless hotspots’, which were defined as anywhere with two or more homeless people in public space. Using data from city policy memos, interviews with homeless people, ethnographic fieldwork with a homeless-led organization, and data from the city’s 311 user-driven complaint system, this article argues that in practice, the shift to hotspots demonstrates the relational geography of homelessness. Selective enforcement of the visible ‘homeless hotspot’ took place in recently-gentrified neighbourhoods, suggesting that the idea of a homeless hotspot itself and the financialized home are co-produced and co-dependent, created through one another. This relational geography, in turn, sheds light on the pervasiveness of anti-homelessness, force that changes with political winds but retains its power in producing borders and boundaries of urban space.     

Empowerment,Capabilities and Homelessness: The Limitations of Employment-focused Social Enterprises in Addressing Complex Needs

‘Empowerment’ is often said to be a key objective of policies aiming to improve the lives of homeless people and other vulnerable groups. This paper contends that Sen and Nussbaum’s influential ‘capability’ approach provides an appropriate means of operationalising this arguably nebulous concept. Via a critique of work-focused social enterprises in the homelessness field, as promoted by successive UK governments, it seeks to demonstrate the importance of a multi-dimensional approach to enhancing the capabilities of homeless people with complex support needs. Specifically, it argues for attention to be given to four (independently important) empowerment ‘domains’: the bodily domain; the political and economic domain; the social and emotional domain; and the creative, intellectual and self-development domain. This broad-based understanding of empowerment implies that a balance must be struck between specialist provision, such as the bespoke social enterprises focused upon in this paper, and more integrative models which seek to support homeless people in ordinary community and workplace settings.     

Young People Exiting Homelessness: An Exploration of Process,Meaning and Definition

In the past decade in particular, research attention has shifted from an almost exclusive focus on routes or pathways into homelessness towards the investigation of exits from homelessness. As well as demonstrating the multiple paths possible for young people who become homeless, recent research, and longitudinal studies in particular, has contributed to a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of the homeless pathways of young people. Nonetheless, knowledge and understanding of the nature of homeless exits, and of the mechanisms that facilitate the transition out of homelessness, is far from complete. This paper explores the processes surrounding the exit routes taken by young people out of homelessness and the meanings attached by them to these housing transitions based on selected findings from an ongoing qualitative longitudinal study of homeless youth in Dublin, Ireland. More broadly, the paper considers the utility of distinguishing between the types of routes that young people take out of homelessness, with particular attention to the notions of ‘independent’ and ‘dependent’ exits. The paper aims to further the discussion and debate on the conceptualisation of homeless exits and also discusses a number of policy implications arising from the study's findings.     

Emergency homeless shelter use in the Dublin region 2012–2016: Utilizing a cluster analysis of administrative data

Arising out of a decade of economic recession and austerity, Ireland is currently in the grip of a severe housing crisis marked by weak housing supply, rapidly rising house prices and rents and a dramatic increase in homelessness that is placing severe pressure on the State's emergency accommodation system. This article utilises data from a national homelessness services database (PASS system), which captures live information on service user interactions for all state funded NGO and local authority homeless services, to examine the patterns of emergency accommodation use by the homeless population in Dublin City. The paper applies a k-means cluster analysis to determine different subgroups of Dublin's homeless population (n = 12,734) and analyses their rate of movement through homeless services between the years 2012 and 2016. A temporary cluster (78%) experienced a small number of homeless episodes for relatively short periods of time, while an episodic cluster (10%) experienced multiple homeless episodes also for a short period of time. The chronic cluster (12%) experienced a small number of homeless episodes but with long stays in emergency shelter. Results for Ireland show patterns similar to those reported in the US, Canada and Denmark, where a small number of chronic users of homeless accommodation account for a disproportionately large share of resources (i.e. 50% of total bed nights). The findings have implications for the operation of emergency homeless accommodation in Ireland and, in particular, the targeting of interventions and the re-directing of resources away from emergency accommodation responses towards a more effective emergency accommodation system for all stakeholders.     

Homelessness and theory reconsidered

Theory will not directly explain the development of policy and provision for homeless people, but it is an important consideration and one deserving of careful attention. In the UK, however, homelessness has often been explained simplistically and somewhat atheoretically as either a housing or a welfare problem, caused either by structural or by individual factors. Likewise, homeless people have been frequently classified as either deserving or undeserving. Such dualistic explanations are less than adequate and any policy and provision influenced by them will, consequently, also likely be less than optimal. Accordingly, this paper explores the potential of alternative theoretical perspectives (feminism, post‐structuralism, postmodernism, structuration and critical theory) for increasing our understanding of homelessness and so potentially improving policy and provision for homeless people in the future.     

"Near and far": social distancing in domiciled characterisations of homeless people

For domiciled individuals, homeless people provide a disturbing reminder that all is not right with the world. Reactions to seeing homeless people frequently encompass repulsion, discomfort, sympathy and sometimes futility. This paper considers domiciled constructions of homeless people drawn from interviews with 16 participants recruited in the central business district of a New Zealand city. It documents how, when trying to make sense of this complex social problem, domiciled people draw on shared characterizations of homeless people. The concept of "social distance" is used to interrogate the shifting and sometimes incongruous reactions evident in participant accounts. "Social distancing" is conceptualised as a dynamic communal practice existing in interactions between human beings and reflected in the ways that domiciled people talk about their experiences with homeless individuals.     

Testing a Typology of Homelessness Across Welfare Regimes: Shelter Use in Denmark and the USA

This article compares patterns of homeless shelter use in Denmark and the USA. Combining data from homeless shelters in Denmark with population registers, we find that the prevalence of shelter use is substantially lower in Denmark than in the USA. A cluster analysis of shelter stays identifies three types of users similar to findings from US research: the transitionally, episodically and chronically homeless. However, the transitionally homeless in Denmark have a higher tendency of suffering from mental illness and substance abuse than the transitionally homeless in the USA. The results support Stephens and Fitzpatrick' hypothesis that countries with more extensive welfare systems and lower levels of poverty have lower levels of homelessness, mainly amongst those with complex support needs, whereas in countries with less extensive welfare systems homelessness affects broader groups and is more widely associated with poverty and housing affordability problems.     

The digitization of advice and welfare benefits services: re-imagining the homeless user

Abstract

Digitization is transforming the way in which people in England access advice and welfare benefits. Face-to-face advice provision is being increasingly replaced by telephone and online services, whilst the online application and management of benefit claims have become mandatory within the introduction of Universal Credit. This paper argues that the current shift to digitization fails to recognize the variation and complexity surrounding homeless people’s use of technology, with homeless people as technology users often placed into homogenizing categories. Based on findings from qualitative interviews and observations carried out with homeless people and voluntary sector organizations, this paper discusses the social and contextual factors affecting homeless people’s use of technology for advice and benefit purposes. The paper highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of homeless people’s use of technology.     

The Trappings of Home: Young Homeless People's Transitions Towards Independent Living

This paper describes the experiences of young homeless people in Western Australia during their transitions to more permanent accommodation and independent living. For these young homeless people, permanent accommodation provided an opportunity for ‘feeling at home’ and having a sense of control and stability associated with ‘home’. Within this space, these young people wanted to be considered ‘normal’ home occupiers. In this context, the paper discusses how young homeless people experience and negotiate the social and cultural understandings of home outside socially accepted pathways of leaving the parental home and becoming ‘normal’ home occupiers themselves. The paper shows how this experience of home, and the potential it offers previously homeless young people, is interrupted by discourses of youth workers, neighbours and society at large, which serve to (re)position them outside the community of ‘normal’ home occupiers. The findings have implications for both policy and the delivery of services to young homeless people.     

‘It's just like we're going around in circles and going back to the same thing …’: The Dynamics of Women's Unresolved Homelessness

The condition of long-term homelessness has been demonstrated to affect a far smaller number of individuals compared with those who exit and become housed. It is nonetheless a pressing policy concern because of the high social and economic costs associated with prolonged homelessness. As with much homelessness research generally, gender is not adequately addressed, and frequently ignored, within analyses of ‘long-term’ or ‘chronic’ homelessness. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance and examines the experiences of women who have lengthy homeless histories based on the accounts of 34 women who are participants in a larger biographical study of homeless women in Ireland. Women's movements into and out of homeless service settings are examined in some detail, as are their accounts of the lived experience of prolonged homelessness. Their narratives reveal their mothering roles and identities, intimate relationships and intimate partner violence, and their ongoing interactions with institutional settings, including homeless hostels, as key dynamics influencing their movements and the strategies used by them as they attempt to manage their homelessness. We conclude by highlighting several gender-specific forces driving the women's experiences of unresolved homelessness. A number of key messages for policy are also discussed.     

The experience of homeless women: An exploration of housing histories and the meaning of home

The exploratory study with homeless women presented in this paper aims to highlight two shortcomings in the current literature on homelessness, which accompany the predominant conceptualisation of ‘home’ as a place of safety and security, and homelessness as a primarily structural issue characterised by ‘residential instability’. The first is the paucity of research on homeless women in their own right and the second the lack of studies which examine underlying reasons for residential instability from homeless women's own perspectives. An intensive, small sample interview study was carried out with 12 regular women users of a day centre for homeless people (Brighton, south of England). They were asked about their patterns of residence, reasons for moving, definitions of ‘house’, ‘home’, and ‘ideal home’, and they gave their housing histories in some detail. In a quantitative analysis, their patterns of moving and definitions of ‘home’ were compared to those of a group of securely housed women. Number of moves was comparable in both groups, but for the homeless women the majority of moves had been made to avoid abuse and social services relocations. Whilst all of the securely housed women could confidently define a difference in meaning between a ‘house’ and a ‘home’, only 3 of the 12 homeless women did. They equated ‘home’ with safety and security, the same terms used in the literature to define what housing means, and the two most salient features largely absent in homeless women's experience of housing. The meaning of home is further explored in a qualitative analysis, where the themes of safety and security—or rather their absence in abusive relationships—are traced through the homeless women's childhood, adolescence and adulthood. These exploratory findings question an easy equation between ‘residential instability’ and homelessness, and highlight the need to investigate further the reasons why women leave housing, and the relationship this has to an understanding of what ‘home’ means. Whilst current formulations suggest that the homelessness of women is a problem, and housing the solution, this study suggests that housing is the problem—homelessness may well be a solution.     

Activity spaces of homeless men and women measured by GPS tracking data: A comparative analysis of Prague and Pilsen

The aim of this article is to investigate the factors that influence the size of activity spaces of homeless men and women in cities. Vulnerable population groups such as the homeless face the risk of mobility challenges that can exacerbate their social exclusion even more through mobility-driven spatial exclusion. The extent of an individual's activity space is a key precondition for the daily coping strategies and life opportunities of homeless people. This study is the first to combine GPS tracking of homeless people based on a week-long GPS measurement with mobility interviews. The article tests five hypotheses as to the influence of city size, age, gender, housing situation and education on the size of activity space. Data obtained for a large city (Prague) and for a small city (Pilsen) are analysed using three geospatial measurements of activity spaces. In line with mixed-method approaches, the results are further triangulated through mobility interviews. By mapping the objective activity spaces, we were able to evaluate the role of individual and contextual factors in shaping homeless life and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of activity space measurement for social policy and urban planning.     

Risk of sick leave associated with outdoor air supply rate, humidification, and occupant complaints

We analyzed 1994 sick leave for 3,720 hourly employees of a large Massachusetts manufacturer, in 40 buildings with 115 independently ventilated work areas. Corporate records identified building characteristics and IEQ complaints. We rated ventilation as moderate (approximately 25 cfm/person, 12 ls-1) or high (approximately 50 cfm/person, 24 ls-1) outdoor air supply based on knowledge of ventilation systems and CO2 measurements on a subset of work areas, and used Poisson regression to analyze sick leave controlled for age, gender, seniority, hours of non-illness absence, shift, ethnicity, crowding, and type of job (office, technical, or manufacturing worker). We found consistent associations of increased sick leave with lower levels of outdoor air supply and IEQ complaints. Among office workers, the relative risk for short-term sick leave was 1.53 (95% confidence 1.22-1.92) with lower ventilation, and 1.52 (1.18-1.97) in areas with IEQ complaints. The effect of ventilation was independent of IEQ complaints and among those exposed to lower outdoor air supply rates the attributable risk of short-term sick leave was 35%. The cost of sick leave attributable to ventilation at current recommended rates was estimated as $480 per employee per year at Polaroid. These findings suggest that net savings of $400 per employee per year may be obtained with increased ventilation. Thus, currently recommended levels of outdoor air supply may be associated with significant morbidity, and lost productivity on a national scale could be as much as $22.8 billion per year. Additional studies of IEQ impacts on productivity and sick leave, and the mechanisms underlying the apparent association are needed.