Using Data to Inform Policy and Programmatic Responses to Unaccompanied Adult Homelessness in Boston
Led by Assistant Professors Thomas Byrne, Yoonsook Ha, and Daniel Miller in collaboration with the Mayor’s Task Force on Individual Homelessness, this project seeks to identify key gaps in existing knowledge about unaccompanied homeless adults who experience related episodes of shelter use over time.
In order to both address gaps in the existing literature on returning unaccompanied homeless adults and help inform ongoing efforts to
address homelessness, the proposed project will address the following specific aims:
- To identify the extent to which unaccompanied adult emergency shelter users who make sustained exits from homelessness subsequently return to emergency shelters.
- To assess whether individual characteristics (e.g. age, gender, disability, veteran status) and programmatic factors (e.g. living situation prior to shelter entry, destination at exit from shelter) are associated with a risk of return to shelter following a sustained exit.
- To identify distinct subgroups of repeated shelter users based on their individual
characteristics, their patterns of shelter use over time and programmatic factors.
The results of this project will provide valuable information for policy and programmatic efforts to address unaccompanied adult homelessness in Boston, and potentially in other communities.
View more projects funded through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards