Community-level predictors of family homelessness in the United States
Item
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Title
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Community-level predictors of family homelessness in the United States
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:e30fad698737:11373
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identifier
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11769
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Creator
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Munley, Ellen,
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Contributor
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John Mollenkopf
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political science | Public policy | family homelessness | homeless families | homelessness rates
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Abstract
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The problem of reducing homelessness in U.S. communities has challenged policymakers and advocates, who have looked to academic research on homelessness to understand its causes and design strategies to prevent and reduce homelessness. Although individual-level research shows important differences between homeless families and homeless individuals, the literature on community-level predictors of homelessness includes little work focused on families. Using newly available data on rates of family homelessness, this study identifies economic and social factors associated with rates of homelessness at the community level, finding that family poverty rates and rental housing costs are strong and consistent predictors of family homelessness, with higher poverty rates and housing costs associated with higher rates of family homelessness. Housing market and economic factors are overall more consistent predictors than public health or demographic factors in these models of family homelessness.;The study also looks closely at the public assistance programs that serve low-income families, asking whether the reach and generosity of these programs, as they vary across states and communities, have any relationship with the rates of homelessness among families. Finding that areas with higher rates of family homelessness tend to have greater enrollment of families in poverty in the TANF program, possible explanations for this result are investigated. The study also finds that the generosity of food stamp benefits is associated with lower family homelessness rates, while similar measures of TANF and SSI programs do not have a measurable community-level relationship with family homelessness rates.;The study discusses several policy recommendations that could address housing market and economic determinants of homelessness, and the need for further individual-level and cross-national research that would continue this examination of the relationship between public assistance programs and family homelessness rates.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Political Science
