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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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Lemon Lime - a song about child sexual abuse

Asetha Power

Asetha is a singer and songwriter that has also worked as a writer, knowledge mobilizer and research/policy analyst for many federal government initiatives related to homelessness and housing instability. She is most proud of her part in helping to create The Homeless Hub. She believes the website can be a catalyst for a major shift in how homelessness is understood and addressed. Through both her professional and personal...

A Systematic Review of Cognitive Deficits in Homeless Adults: Implications for Service Delivery

Tara A. Burra

Vicky Stergiopoulos

Sean B. Rourke

The primary goals of this systematic review were to assess studies of homeless adults and cognitive functioning, and to explore the clinical implications and potential impacts on social functioning of these cognitive deficits. The MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, ERIC, Social Sciences Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts...

8.4 Ethics in Research with Homeless Women

Emily K. Paradis

This chapter applies feminist and community psychology ethics to the analysis of research with women who are homeless. The author examines the ethical questions that can arise throughout the research process, from the planning stage, through data collection and analysis, to the writing and dissemination of results and proposes strategies for transforming research with women who are homeless into a means for challenging...

8.3 Towards a Strategy for Counting the Homeless

Tracy Peressini

Lynn Mcdonald

David J. Hulchanski

Conventional strategies for counting individuals based on households do not apply to the homeless. The homeless are a transient, mobile, and elusive population, although they tend to aggregate for short periods in places such as shelters, soup kitchens, medical services, and drop-in centres. Carrying out counts in these types of locations requires permission and cooperation from those providing the services that the homeless...

6.3 Hidden Homelessness among Aboriginal Peoples in Prairie Cities

Jino Distasio

Gina Sylvestre

Susan Mulligan

This research examined hidden homelessness among Aboriginal persons in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Regina. The results indicate a high level of housing instability. In particular, nearly 20 percent of participants had a seasonal connection to their home communities. This group is unique among those in various levels of housing distress. Service providers do their best to cope with the crushing need to provide shelter and...

4.5 Pan-Territorial Report: A Study of Women's Homelessness North of 60°

Canada’s North has special characteristics that contribute to high rates of homelessness in general, as well as among women in particular. The researchers held focus group discussions and interviews with homeless women and those at risk of becoming homeless, as well as the service providers in both the government and voluntary sectors. The findings cover matters such as the determinants of homelessness in the North, the...

4.4. Rights to the City: Thinking Social Justice for Chronically Homeless Women

Fran Klodawsky

This article contrasts two models of support for homeless women – the continuum of care, and Housing First. Although the former has drawbacks, Housing First could result in warehousing marginalized individuals in units that present a façade of normalcy, but that mask the isolation of vulnerable individuals. A focus on home spaces and gendered and race-sensitive rights to the city represent alternatives. These approaches would...

4.3 Making the invisible visible: Canadian women, homelessness and health outside the "big city"

Carolyn Whitzman

Popular conceptions of homelessness focus on the “visibly homeless” − those in emergency hostels and shelters and those who sleep rough. Yet many women and men face “hidden homelessness.” Research and interventions also tend to focus on the homeless in large cities, and overlook those in smaller centres or rural areas. This study investigates the experiences of homeless women in Toronto, Oshawa, Kingston, and Haliburton. The...

3.8 The "hand-to-mouth" existence of homeless youths in Toronto

The study examines the relationship between chronic food deprivation and food acquisition practices among homeless youth in Toronto. The authors found that the ways in which homeless youths endeavoured to manage their food needs reflect a “hand-to-mouth” existence, characterized by the use of a wide diversity of strategies to obtain small amounts of food for immediate consumption. Many of these strategies were stigmatizing...

2.7 Primary Health Care for Homeless Persons: Evaluating the Options Using a Policy Analysis Approach

What is the most effective way to deliver point-of-first-contact or primary health care to homeless persons? A number of new models of payment and organization have been used in Canada over the last two decades, but there is little literature on whether they meet the needs of homeless persons. The researchers interviewed key informants in primary care programs targeting homeless individuals and concluded that the...

1.5 Toronto's Streets to Homes Program

Nick Falvo

How effective is the Housing First model of providing permanent housing to long-term or chronically homeless singles? Toronto’s Streets to Homes (S2H) program is arguably the most popular model today. This chapter examines the “treatment first” approach to housing homeless persons, as well as the emergence of the Housing First model. It also includes an assessment of Toronto’s Streets to Homes (S2H) program: it origin,...

Accountability and learning: developing monitoring and evaluation in the third sector

Tracey Gregory

This summary reports the key findings of field research carried out by Charities Evaluation Services (CES) between November 2006 and March 2008. The research included 682 responses to an online survey to third sector organisations and 89 responses to an online survey of a wide spectrum of funders. Focusing on England, this research report carried out face-to-face and telephone interviews with 88 national, regional and local...

CES - Evaluation Guidance papers

An evaluation (whether it is externally done, or based on self-assessment) usually reveals a mixture of strengths and areas for improvement. We help you prioritise so you set yourselves a manageable plan of action. 1. How to cost an evaluation Many voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) want to evaluate their work, so as to learn more about their effectiveness and to satisfy the requirement of funders. Often self-...

Running on empty: Monitoring the lives and circumstances of formerly homeless families with children

Anne B. Shlay

Homelessness is a manifestation of acute poverty accompanied by long-term unemployment, deficient human capital, problems with substance abuse, inadequate welfare benefits, and other vulnerabilities. Homeless people have problems that require sustained intervention strategies that will permit them the opportunity to enter the labor market, maintain permanent housing, remain healthy and functional, and take care of their...

Patterns of Consumer Usage of Homeless Outreach Services

Amory W. Carr

David S. Glenwich

Se-Kang Kim

Outreach programs are a vital part of the continuum of services for the homeless. To investigate the characteristics of consumers of such programs and the services they receive, a sample of 446 clients of a homeless outreach program in New York City was divided into those who visited only once, two to three times, and four or more times during a 1-month period. Chi-square analyses revealed that the groups differed...

Children on the Streets of the Americas: Globalization, Homelessness and Education in the United States, Brazil, and Cuba

R. Mickelson

The number of street children in developed and developing nations is rising, often in the midst of prosperity. These original contributions study and compare the living conditions and educational experiences of homeless children in the United States, Brazil and Cuba. Because social policy and economic factors are central to these children's plight, Mickelson and her contributors employ a political economy perspective to...

El Niño: Children of the Streets, Mexico City (Image and Imagination)

Kent Klich

Elena Poniatowska

This text presents some of the photographs taken by Kent Klich of the children living on the streets of Mexico City. The text depicts the brutal living conditions, the loneliness, illness and desperation that is everyday life to these children.

Andrew's Story

Dominic Mapstone

Once arrested 4 tackling a statue of a cow, Andrew first ran away from foster care at age 14. Andrew was murdered while living on the streets.

Analysis of Risk Communication Strategies and Approaches with At-Risk Populations to Enhance Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (Working Paper)

Communication is a critical component of helping individuals prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. However, there is limited knowledge about how to best communicate with at-risk populations in emergencies. To inform this gap, RAND researchers, under contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), sought to understand the...

Through a Blue Lens

Veronica Alice Mannix

Constable Al Arsenault, along with six other policemen, document the people on their beat to create a powerful film about drug abuse. This group of officers developed a unique relationship with addicts in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In this documentary, drug addicts talk openly about how they got to the streets and send a powerful message of caution to others about the dangers of drug abuse. Watch the video here

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