Cityscape Explores Youth
Homelessness
The latest issue of Cityscape:
A Journal of Policy Development and Research titled "Youth
Homelessness" features a research symposium on coordinated community
responses to youth homelessness.
Guest editor Matthew
H. Morton introduces six studies that explore youth homelessness
from different perspectives. He describes the growing body of evidence on
the significance of youth homelessness and policy efforts, linking housing
to health and child development. He summarizes the symposium articles,
touching on findings and discussions of the articles, and how the research
can contribute to understanding youth homelessness and improving housing
policies toward ending youth homelessness.
The symposium articles present empirical findings
and discuss policy implications.
Jama
Shelton, Jonah DeChants, Kim Bender, Hsun-Ta Hsu, Diane Santa Maria,
Robin Petering, Kristin Ferguson, Sarah Narendorf, and Anamika
Barman-Adhikari explore housing and homelessness challenges faced by
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) young
adults. They find that most LGBTQ young adults are exposed to homelessness
due to voluntarily or involuntarily leaving the home of their parents,
relatives, foster, or group homes. With regard to duration of homelessness,
discrimination, and stress, homelessness experiences vary by subgroup.
Gina
M. Samuels, Christine Cerven, Susanna R. Curry, and Shantá R.
Robinson examine young people's experiences with housing instability
and attempts to engage resources. They find that youth weigh emotional,
psychological, and relational risks associated with services and supports as
well as physical risks when deciding whether or not to engage resources.
While the most common form of engagement is selective engagement of
services, LGBTQ identities are likely to be crucial in determination of the
engagement of available resources.
Eric
Rice, Monique Holguin, Hsun-Ta Hsu, Matthew Morton, Phebe Vayanos,
Milind Tambe, and Hau Chan present a comprehensive evaluation of the
relationship between homelessness vulnerability scores, housing placements,
and stability of housing outcomes. Drawing upon data from the Homeless
Management Information System, they find that the tool for assessing youth
vulnerability performs well in predicting youth in needs for housing
services. Without intervention such as placement in permanent supportive
housing or rapid rehousing, high vulnerability scores tend to be associated
with higher odds of continued homelessness.
Benjamin
F. Henwood, Brian Redline, Sara Semborski, Harmony Rhoades, Eric Rice,
and Suzanne L. Wenzel explore the impact of permanent supportive
housing on ontological security for young adults. They find that ontological
security that consists of a sense of constancy, routine, and control
positively affected the mental health and well-being of young adults living
in permanent supportive housing. This also enables young residents to
cultivate various types of social relationships, leading to engaging in
positive identity formation.
Amy
Dworsky, Fred Wulczyn, and Lilian Huang analyze the incidence of
running away during the first out-of-home care spell among youth who entered
foster care as adolescents. Relying on child-level placement data from the
Multistate Foster Care Data Archive, they find that the likelihood of
running away varies by demography, race, and placement type. The risk of
running away might be mitigated if a screening or risk assessment process is
introduced when youth enter out-of-home care, preventing them from being
homeless.
Sarah
Cusworth Walker, Esteban Valencia, Asia Bishop, Michael Irons, and Arina
Gertseva explore development and evaluation of principles related to
values and system operations in addressing the risk of justice-focused youth
homelessness. This mixed methods study finds that 20 to 50 percent of youth
cases filed in juvenile court had experienced at least one prior incidence
of running away or being kicked out of the home. Qualitative findings
highlight service gaps for youth experiencing homelessness, the limitations
of current ways to identify homelessness and housing needs, and ideas for
leveraging existing service providers.
Stephen
Gaetz and David
MacKenzie respond to the symposium articles by discussing
implications and lessons from international contexts, particularly Canada
and Australia. They highlight research, practice, and policy frameworks in
their own countries, and offer challenges and opportunities associated with
key issues.
In addition to the symposium, the issue features two refereed papers: Elora
Lee Raymond, Richard Duckworth, Benjamin Miller, Michael Lucas, and
Shiraj Pokharel's case study of evictions in post-foreclosure,
corporate-owned, single-family rentals in Atlanta, GA, and Brent
Mast's analysis of school performance of schools assigned to
HUD-assisted households.
Articles in this issue's regularly appearing departments include "2018
Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning
Competition: Whittier Falls in Dover, New Hampshire," by Regina C.
Gray in Affordable Design; "The
Housing and Children's Healthy Development Study," by Sandra Newman
and Tama Leventhal, and "Street
Vending in the United States: A Unique Dataset from a Survey of Street
Vendors in America's Largest Cities" by Dick M. Carpenter II in Data
shop; "Performance
of Small Public Housing Authorities: Opportunities and Barriers," by
Andrew J. Greenlee, Han Bum Lee, and Paul E. McNamara in Policy Briefs;
"Intersecting
Opportunity Zones with Vacant Business Addresses," by Alexander Din
in Graphic Detail; and "Talking
to Landlords," by Philip M.E. Garboden and Eva Rosen in Evaluation
Tradecraft.
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