Homelessness Literature Review
A significant amount of the literature on homelessness is limited, and much of it is rather old. However, most literature on the topic does agree on one thing: the primary cause of homelessness is economic rather than social. The literature also specificities there is no perfect response to homelessness, but rather a combination of preventive measures is necessary to be effective (Rue & Pingle, 2018). Additionally, research shows with the Point in Time (PIT) counts that from 2016 onward, there has been a rise in homelessness. Whereas from 2007 to 2015, there was a steady decline. Much can be done to prevent homelessness. Specific to Utah, the Office of the Legislative Auditor General’s findings have found that much of the state’s tools to count the homeless population and monitor homelessness prevention are inefficient and are not being used consistently or both. While current systems in place are poorly used or poorly designed, the effectiveness of Utah’s pilot program of Housing First cannot be denied, which the literature deems as evident. Access to housing is an extremely effective way of combating homelessness.
Difficult housing markets lead to higher rates of homelessness (Quigley & Raphael, 2001). Improvements in housing markets would lead to decreases in homelessness, such as improvements in housing prices, including rental affordability and housing units’ overall availability. This leads to a decrease in homelessness. Small changes in the housing market can show drastic improvements in homelessness. As such, any combination of policy to combat homelessness should include some measures that provide access to affordable housing. As Quigley and Raphael have shown, this does not just hold for rental housing. Making it easier for people to access funds to purchase a home also has been shown to improve homelessness.
Some positives in the current fight against homelessness, both Utah and the federal government’s official plans for tackling homelessness, involve implementing strategies to increase affordable housing access. (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2017) (Workforce Services Housing and Community Development, 2019). Both plans make access to affordable housing a crucial part of their plan. Furthermore, the literature shows that programs explicitly geared towards providing access to housing tend to be most successful at preventing homelessness in the first place (Evans, Philips, & Ruffini, 2019); however, there is insufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of rapid re-housing. Recent findings also suggest protection against evictions are also needed. Two separate studies around the topic have shown “… convincing evidence that eviction leads to tremendous housing instability, including a pronounced increase in homelessness.” (Evans, Philips, & Ruffini, 2019) Further showing the need for a diverse set of policies to tackle the issue, with access to affordable housing being the main focus.
This is the literature review from a report I co-authored with Nate Allen, Ben Phan, Gabriel Nogueras, Hadly Bringhurst, Jan Otrusinik, and Jessica Wolford. The full report and citations are available upon request.
