Introduction
Homelessness in urban areas, particularly among children, is a significant issue facing major U.S. cities. As reported in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments annual homeless assessment report (2020), there were approximately 570,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2019 in the United States. Furthermore, homelessness has recently increased nationwide, although the temporal changes in homeless rates exhibit considerable sub-national variations. For example, while homelessness has increased dramatically in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, known for their long-standing high rates of homelessness, cities such as Chicago have seen a general decrease in homelessness during the same period (Knowles 2019).
Research has extensively investigated the geography of homelessness. Still, most have examined the distribution of homeless populations at a large geographic level due to limited finer-grained spatial data on the locations of homeless populations (Parkinson et al. 2019). Homelessness is a spatially concentrated phenomenon within a city or a metropolitan area, but our understanding of the factors determining this pattern remains limited. Additionally, little is known about the temporal changes in the patterns of homelessness at a finer geographic level, particularly at the neighborhood level. Given the potential social, economic, and public health effects of homelessness on neighborhoods, understanding the locations where homeless populations grow or decline and the factors influencing these changes is essential. This knowledge is critical to inform policy decisions on providing supportive services and implementing homelessness prevention programs (Shin, 2021).
Urban homelessness has long served to indicate the current socio-spatial order and its change. Rising homelessness has accompanied industrialization, urban revitalization, and economic crises. Ethnographic accounts of the everydayness of homeless people depicted the socio-spatial mechanisms of these societal transformations and their effects on urban life, particularly in Western metropolises, where homelessness was first studied at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then, ethnographic research has explored homeless peoples strategies for coping with the disadvantaging socio-spatial order or the impacts of urban renewal and deindustrialization. In recent decades, ethnographic studies have highlighted the imprints of neoliberal policies on urban landscapes, public space politics, and patterns of displacement and resistance from the perspective of homeless people (Clarke & Parsell, 2019).
Ethnographic research has also revealed various ways and tools of homemaking, informal citizenship, or other forms of political agency related to housing precarity (McCarthy, 2020).
Homelessness is a symptom of global and systemic changes (Giles, 2017, p. 332), with different stories from various cities interrelated and affected by the same changes in the global economy. However, the geographical scope of places from which academic knowledge about homelessness has emerged is still relatively limited. Cities in the Global North and the West are mostly covered, with testimonials from American cities often serving as a reference for conceptualizing homelessness and policies that address it in different contexts (Feren?uhov and Vat, 2021).
Community engagement activity
Homelessness in urban areas, particularly among children, is a pressing issue that requires attention. However, conducting research with disadvantaged populations can be challenging due to social instability and acute health challenges that may hinder participation. This is evident in a study conducted by Cambell et al. (2021), where half of the participants faced acute health challenges that prevented their participation, and frequent changes in residence and telephone numbers occurred during the study period. The authors suggest that additional support resources and specific training in trauma-based care could have helped address the potential emotional and stress-related challenges faced by the participants.
In addition to the challenges disadvantaged populations face, there are other obstacles to conducting community-based participatory research...
…carefully considered when using participatory approaches to address homelessness and related issues.Advisory Board
Homelessness in urban areas, particularly among children, is a complex issue that requires a collaborative approach. Establishing and maintaining a Community Advisory Board (CAB) could be a powerful mechanism for building partnerships between academic institutions and the community to address this issue. CABs can provide a focus for research efforts and a means of building capacity in the community and the academic institution. However, creating and sustaining a CAB is a time- and labor-intensive process that requires careful consideration of the desired functions of the CAB. Sharing successes and challenges in forming, operating, and maintaining effective CABs promotes ongoing learning and provides a frame of reference for continuing action and research on the best processes in community-based participatory research (Newman et al., 2011). By establishing a CAB focused on homelessness in urban areas, stakeholders can work collaboratively to identify and prioritize research questions and solutions relevant to the community.
Story Circles
One potential way to address the issue of homelessness is through story circles. Story circles are a community-based participatory approach that can be used to engage individuals facing or facing homelessness and other stakeholders. Participants share their stories and experiences related to homelessness in story circles, providing valuable insights into the issue. Hamada (2021) described a story circle that attracted a range of participants, including people experiencing homelessness, those who had escaped it and were now helping others, landlords, charity workers, and a councilor who had previously experienced homelessness herself. The stories shared in the circle were poignant and eye-opening, providing important insights into the issue of homelessness. Using story circles and other community-based participatory approaches, it may be possible to understand the issue of homelessness better and work collaboratively to…
References
Campbell, D. J. T., Campbell, R. B., DiGiandomenico, A., & et al. (2021). Using a community-based participatory research approach to meaningfully engage those with lived experience of diabetes and homelessness. BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care, 9(1), e002154. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2020Clarke, A., & Parsell, C. (2019). The potential for urban surveillance to help support people who are homeless: Evidence from Cairns, Australia. Urban Studies, 56(10), 1951-1967. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018807914Feren?uhová, S., & Vašát, P. (2021). Ethnographies of urban change: Introducing homelessness and the post-socialist city. Urban Geography, 42(9), 1217-1229. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1740125Giles, D. B. (2017). Neutralizing homelessness, 2015: The story to date. Urban Geography, 38(3), 332-340. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1194475Hamada, R. (2020, January 10). Taking a story full circle: reporting with people, not on them. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/blog/2020-01-10/taking-a-story-full-circle
Knowles, H. (2019, December 21). Homelessness in the U.S. Rose for a Third Year, Driven by a Surge in California, HUD Says. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/21/homelessness-us-rose-thirdyear-driven-by-surge-california-hud-says/McCarthy, L. (2020). Homeless women, material objects, and home (un)making. Housing Studies, 35(7), 1309-1333. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2019.1690742Parkinson, S., Batterham, D., Reynolds, M., & Wood, G. A. (2019). The Changing Geography of Homelessness: A Spatial Analysis From 2001 to 2016. Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/39481/AHURI-Final-Report-323-The-changing-geography-of-homelessness-a-spatial-analysis-from-2001-to-2016.pdf
Shin, E. J. (2021). Neighborhood Distribution of Unsheltered Homelessness and its Temporal Changes: Evidence from Los Angeles. Urban Affairs Review, 57(2), 541–576. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874211004409Smith, D., & Zahniser, D. (2019, June 3). Filth from homeless camps is luring rats to L.A. City Hall, report says. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rats-homelessness-city-hall-fleas-report-20190603-story.html
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2020). The 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2019-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
Homelessness has remained one of the min problems for the countries who are wealthy and rich in resources. Some of these countries include UK and Canada. It is still one of the strangest facts that there are millions of homeless people still living on the streets of these wealthy countries in shattered homes or streets. Various studies have been conducted on the issues faced by these homeless people as well
Homelessness Is homelessness increasing in the United States? Homelessness has become progressively more apparent in the United States over the past quarter century. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has amassed a wealth of data that confirm low-income housing is a critical requirement. Even as some communities are realizing a decrease in their homeless population; others are experiencing the opposite. It is disheartening to note that the largest increase in
et al. (2005) Facts on Trauma and Homeless Children. National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Homelessness and Extreme Poverty Working Group. Online available at http://www.nctsnet.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/promising_practices/Facts_on_Trauma_and_Homeless_Children.pdf Burt, Aron, Douglas, et al., (1999) Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve: Summary Report - Findings of the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 1999 Burt, Martha, (2001) What Will it Take to End Homelessness? Washington, DC: The
" How many people are homeless? The number of homeless is difficult to ascertain because estimates vary depending on the methodology used. Numbers also vary substantially depending on whether a measurement is taken on a single night or is extrapolated to a given year. One approximation of the annual number of homeless in America is from a study done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which estimates between 2.3 and
Crime is not the only issue where homelessness is concerned, however, and homelessness in and of itself can be very difficult for someone to deal with, especially if the homelessness was unexpected or there are many familial obligations that suddenly will not be met (such as in the case of a single mother, for example). When homelessness occurs this way and causes these kinds of problems, there can be very
Homelessness Intervention Social Work Universally in the developed world, homelessness is something that communities want to end rather than manage. Co-ordinated social services can come together to create and enhance community-based responses that tackle the threat of homelessness rather than attempting to deal with it on the other end -- after the fact, after people are demoralized by the experience. An important part of any community response to homelessness is affordable housing. But
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