INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL HOMELESSNESS RESEARCH CONFERENCE DOCUMENTS NEW ROLE OF RESEARCH IN POLICYMAKING AND INVESTMENT

Two hundred homelessness researchers from the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, Germany, Finland, EU countries, and Uruguay gathered last week at the University of Pennsylvania for the first-ever International Homelessness Research Conference.

The conference was organized by the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and the VA National Center on Homelessness among Veterans. Leading homelessness researcher Dr. Dennis Culhane is Professor of the Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy at the university and Director of Research at The National Center on Homelessness among Veterans, of the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs. Vince Kane is Director of the VA Center and Director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program and the Low Income at Risk Initiative, which includes Prevention, the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration (VHPD) Program and the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program.

Conference co-sponsors were the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, FEANTSA, and the European Observatory on Homelessness. Nora Hunt-Johnson, Research Coordinator of the VA National Center, provided expert support in organizing the conference for attendees.

"The conference created an opportunity for people to learn about how homelessness is framed and addressed in other countries, and to share research results on the relative effectiveness of interventions to address the problem, such as Housing First, permanent supportive housing, and rapid housing stabilization programs," observed Dr. Culhane. "The U.S. has been the innovator in the Housing First realm, but both Canada and the EU have multisite studies in this area.  Alternatively, much of the EU is far ahead of us in housing stabilization programs, and we are just beginning to develop the evidence base here."

Presenters from participating countries gave homelessness policy and research profiles of their countries, and plenary sessions focused on prevention, Housing First, and future research.  Breakout sessions included youth homelessness, Housing First evaluations, prevention research, and family homelessness systems change.

Participants heard from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, and representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S Interagency Council on Homelessness. 

Donovan called on attendees to be ambitious, noting the progress to date "proved what just a few years ago seemed nearly impossible: that we can end homelessness in America; that we can house anyone; and that our challenge now is to house everyone.  As part of this work, we want to fundamentally change how our government does business, and help transform the homeless services system as a whole."

In last month's e-news, we reported on new decreases in homelessness being announced across the country. The more than 20 initial reports, from cities and states in every part of the country, continue the good news of results and underscore the unprecedented commitment, investment, partnership, and decreases that began in 2005 under the Bush Administration and now continue under the current Administration. Jurisdictions - including some of the first to commit to Ten Year Plans and document local reductions -  applied data and research strategically to forward housing solutions and to adopt innovative and evidence-based practices and continue to build on their quantifiable results in ending homelessness from the mobilization of political will and partnership. With many communities releasing the results of their 2013 Point-in-Time (PIT) counts, new data point to significant decreases in communities of all sizes.  

In this e-news, we report on additional new reductions reported from around the nation.

The political will and determination of VA Secretary Shinseki has not only sustained the advances and policy directions of the past Administration;  he has made a sustained effort to increase resources and established a 5-year goal to end veteran homelessness in our country. Added to the previous years of focus over the past decade, two Administrations through their VA Secretaries and with support from HUD Secretaries have made this decade-long priority a sustained and results -oriented initiative. In recent years the work of The National Center on Homelessness among Veterans under the leadership of Vince Kane has assured that research is the starting point for policy adjustments and new initiatives. The research of Dr. Dennis Culhane and his involvement in the Center have created the research-policy-implementation-evaluation approach that has led to significant change in policy direction.

PARTNERING RESEARCH WITH PUBLIC POLICY:  

A COMPREHENSIVE NEW RESOURCE ON YOUTH HOMELESSNESS FROM CANADIAN RESEARCHERS

The Real Cost of Homelessness: Can we save money by doing the right thing? examined cost issues in Canadian homelessness, has co-authored a new e-book by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network.  

Noting in an essay about the new book that "research is essential to identifying the underlying features of the problem, assessing the effectiveness of interventions, and pointing the way towards conceptual shifts that are necessary in the identification of effective solutions," Gaetz and his co-authors cover new ground in analyzing the issue and proposing solutions.

Among these key points is an effort to develop a youth specific definition of homelessness that suggests a typology of those who are 1) unsheltered or absolutely homeless; 2) those in emergency shelter; 3) those who are provisionally accommodated ["whose accommodation is temporary or lacks security of tenure"]; and 4) those at risk.  Also suggested is an inclusive age range of 13-24 for young adults living independently of parents and caregivers and lacking key social supports, housing, and income.

Notes Gaetz in an online essay about the new book: "We need to think more strategically about the problem, and shift from a narrow emphasis on emergency service provision (which does have an important role to play) to a model that also incorporates effective prevention strategies and housing and support options. In doing this, we need to design strategies and interventions that are tailored to the needs of adolescents and young adults."

Among the steps suggested is the development of a plan "that is inclusive in its process, strategic in its objectives, sets real and measurable targets for change, is clear to all stakeholders and leads to real changes in young people's lives. The '10 Year Plan' approach, which originated in and has proven to be successful in the United States, has been adapted and applied in over ten Canadian communities, including most cities in Alberta."

"Any plan to end youth homelessness should include a statement of guiding principles and core values, for these shape how one responds to the needs of young people. As with the Ten Year Plan model, an effective youth homelessness strategy must have clearly articulated goals and objectives, timelines, responsibilities and benchmarks, as well as measurable targets. The right players must be engaged in the development and implementation of the plan, and importantly, young people must be involved in the planning, delivery and evaluation. It is important to include their voices in any quality assurance system."

Additionally, the authors underscore the important role of family in ending youth homelessness.  "It should go without saying that family does matter in the transition process from youth to adulthood. However, since histories of family conflict and/or abuse are so prevalent amongst street youth, the sector often ignores family as part of the solution to youth homelessness . . .    In fact, many services operate on the assumption that young people need to be protected - and isolated - from their families. Families are framed as 'part of the past', rather than as resources that young people can and should draw on as they move forward."

The entire book is available electronically at the Homeless Hub: http://www.homelesshub.ca/youthhomelessness

RESEARCHERS WHO WOULD CURE THE WORLD

In his remarks at the presentation of the first-ever Career Achievement recognition at the inaugural International Homelessness Research Conference, Round Table President Mangano noted the work of Dr. Paul Farmer described in Tracy Kidder's book, "Mountains Beyond Mountains," and invoked the image of Farmer bringing healing wherever he went. Mangano described researchers as "bringing health to communities by dispelling the old shibboleths of homeless practice and in finally offering the customer, our neighbor, the consumer, what they most want, a place to live."

"Isn't that the collective work of all of you and why this Conference is so important? Together you are the researchers who would cure the world of the long misery of homelessness. I've been to your countries and know the challenges.

"Here in the States the primary convener of this gathering, Dennis Culhane, has been an agent of remedy for decades, from his graduate days of organizing a union of homeless people in Boston to his work to liberate us from our captivity to exaggerated numbers and ideological and provider intimidation and bullying.

"His research was the basis of the homelessness policies of the Administration I served. And his current work with Vince Kane at Veterans Affairs is a model of research driving policy and investment.

"He, like Sam Tsemberis and Deb Rog and Beth Shinn and tomorrow's honoree, Martha Burt, would be the 'Researchers who would cure the United States.' Just as each of you is working with colleagues in your respective counties and regions to do the same.

"We are indebted to you, each of you for your work as Doctors of Evidence. The acknowledgement and recognition of this conference is for your work.  

"Isn't it the plight of the beleaguered researcher? Self-medicating policymakers choose what they want based on what looks good on paper. Often ignoring the data and research-driven diagnosis and prescriptions. Or forgetting them in the welter of a status quo that resists any change.

"And self-sustaining providers of the status quo whose self-interest rejects that there's a better way and the change that would go with it. Also ignoring, often with hostility - ridiculing and resisting - the research.

"It's difficult to be the Doctor of Diagnosis and the Proposer of Prescriptions only to face policymakers and providers resistant to change, enamored of what hasn't worked.

"In the choice between the proposed evidence-based and the presumed self-evident, the latter is clung to. The entrenched status quo that pronounces itself as the captain of the destinies of those caught in the web of is well-intentioned, looking good on paper, but obsolete programs, is a powerful lobby. As our neighbors continue to languish in the long misery and human tragedy of homelessness.

"Only when data and research were harnessed to evidence-based innovation and business principles and practices did we see reductions. That was the new equation. That business approach assigned PRIMACY to research and REASSERTED that primacy throughout policy creation, investment, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. A business approach shaped in baselines, benchmarks, best practices, budget implications. The Killer B's.

"In that context research engages the issue with a strategy consonant with our larger mission: Abolishing homelessness for our poorest neighbors. Through prevention and intervention evidence-based practice.

"That led to this country's first documented decrease in street and chronic homelessness in a half century, nearly a 40% decrease in a half decade, 2005-2009.

"Ah, but the forces of the status quo are always lurking, waiting for the moment when there is the slightest flagging in the commitment to research and data. Jurisdictions lose their way sometimes. They do. They backslide as the status quo regains momentum.

"Research offers a way past that reassertion of the past. That's the research that focuses on cost studies and cost benefit analysis and savings argument. That connects with self interest both in the political and civic mindset. Self interest that has an immediate appeal to the policymakers beyond enabling a status quo that doesn't work to engaging a strategy informed by research that is cost effective and does work.

"The cost benefit analyses have initiated and sustained more political and civic will than all our moral and humane arguments together. That doesn't mean we abandon them. We keep a good grip on them with our one hand while the other is preaching the cost data and argument.  

"Research that advances the well-being of the consumer by moving beyond the expensive ersatz response to cost effective solutions and a more immediate appeal to policymakers. Economics trumps the bromides of the past. Moving beyond enabling what has never worked and the rationalizations that go with it to the rigors of research telling us what works for whom, how many, where, how long, for how much less.

"Your research offers the opportunity to make the turnaround. A conversion from conjecture and anecdote to data and research. From inputs to outcomes. From funding to investing. From process to performance. From enabling to solving.  

"Some final observations.

• There is no doubt that all of the social wrongs that have been resolved and human rights expanded - whether the abolition of slavery, the expansion of suffrage, the ending of child labor, the extension of civil rights - I do believe that research and data have more of a role in ending this social disgrace than in any past social movement.
  
  The need for evidence and proofs of interventions through research that demonstrates results and cost efficiencies is our brand of moral suasion and humanitarian concern. Only through research will we get there.

• Your work, your research, your data will always be challenged by a threatened status quo. 'Your methodology is skewed,' 'your sample is compromised.' Every innovation is doubted, ridiculed, resisted. Your absolute objectivity in  following the numbers, rather than preconceived notions, will ensure your impact even with such resistance. 
   
• Marketing your research is a continuous requirement to see its policy impact. You may not need to do that yourself, but you need allies who will. Shaping your findings into the political and economic vernacular of elected and appointeds and civic leaders; inspiring wary providers to move beyond demoralization and frustration of their well intentioned efforts to the research and innovation that offer solutions and remoralization. 
  
  
  Without marketing, your research may go straight to a shelf, collect dust and cobwebs and be subject to some future archeological dig to discover what was in there, 'Indiana Jones and the Concealed Data.'
   
• Non- homeless specific research has a significant place in our efforts.  Our recruitment of Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Collins, and Clay Christensen, all best selling business writers, to help shape our federal strategy, engaged their research in creating a tipping point, the irony of moving from good to great, and focusing on the consumer.
  
  
  But if there is one thing that is common in their research on creating change it is the need to engage constantly with the consumer of your research in their own vernacular. Reminding and re-reminding and recalling the strategy, the research, the data, the mission. Over and over.  
   
• We need your research not only to confirm best practices, but to uncover 'Next Practices.' To discern and discriminate between innovative ideas competing for policy acceptance and financial support. We've had enough of the 'what looks good on paper' funding syndrome. I think especially of 'social impact financing,' the notion of attracting private investment to support interventions that save money for the government.
  
  "With a promise of a return on investment. SIF offers opportunity to scale what we know works and to simplify dramatically the sources of the funds for housing and services. We need to know: How will it work? Will it work? How to refine and shape SIF to scale what works? In Massachusetts I have been involved and the questions still outnumber the declaratives.
  
  "Out in California I am involved in several initiatives to create a trajectory for a homeless person or ex-offender to move beyond a temp job to a career trajectory. And another to end the plight of unsheltered families. We've mustered the players. But the research will need to confirm, deny, or modify.

"The rigors of research will continue to lead in shaping public policy. The primacy of research is worth fighting for.  

"All of us who seek to abolish this social blight owe a debt of gratitude to all of you.  

"Together we are moral insomniacs who won't rest until the cure is found and offered to all. And our mission of abolition is realized."