2018 Manchester Fellow

It is my unwavering belief that a society should be judged not by its wealth or its military might, but by the compassion it shows for its most vulnerable members. It is this core belief which compels my interest in the issue of homelessness as well as the fact that my hometown of Tampa, FL has the highest rate of homelessness of any metropolitan area in the country. Having volunteered for over four years at a local soup kitchen, I began to feel that I was merely addressing symptoms of homelessness rather than its root causes. That is why I’m so grateful to the Initiative on Cities as well as my mentors at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority for giving me the opportunity to work towards a better understanding of an issue which I find so pressing and important.

Given my conviction that housing should be a basic human right, the timing of my work in Greater Manchester couldn’t have been any better. Greater Manchester’s newly elected Mayor, Andy Burnham, is actively working to address Manchester’s growing homelessness crisis. Since 2010, some estimate that the number of people sleeping on the streets has gone up 600%. However, much is being done to combat that. The mayor’s goal is to end street sleeping by 2020. Under his leadership, Greater Manchester is running a pilot of a Housing First program which could help house over 500 homeless people as well as a Social Impact Bond which could help 200 homeless people.

During my time with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, my main project was to put together a report on the extent of homelessness across the ten local authorities that comprise Greater Manchester. Using survey data that the local authorities collected on people who presented as homeless, I was able to analyze the prevalence of homelessness over time, the immediate causes of an individual’s homelessness, and the efficacy of the local authorities’ responses to homelessness. Some of my findings were grave: A large cause of homelessness is domestic violence; compared to Greater Manchester’s total population, Greater Manchester’s homeless population is disproportionately black; the use of local authority housing as temporary accommodation for the homeless, which is generally of good quality, is on the decline whereas the use of bed and breakfasts, which are often of a very poor quality, is increasing.

One of the most challenging aspects of my work, and the work of my colleagues on the research team, was getting access to the data which would be most helpful in informing policy. Sometimes, we found that government collected data was unreliable. Other times, we found that the data we needed simply didn’t exist. For example, the government does not require data to be collected on children leaving government care and therefore, it’s extremely difficult to know how many of these children will become homeless. To overcome this challenge, data sets were sometimes purchased from private companies or else, researchers, like my supervisor, would collect the data themselves from the necessary stakeholders. My role impressed upon me a new found respect for government analysts as well as a data driven approach. Unlike academic researchers, who may have years before releasing a certain finding, government analysts have to be able to prepare statistics rapidly and sometimes with imperfect information. Despite these constraints, my coworkers did their utmost to produce reliable information that policy makers could utilize.

My work at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has molded my perspective on the challenges of ending homelessness.  Not only must resources be marshaled and coalitions built but, data on the prevalence and causes of homelessness must be accurately collected so that the challenges Greater Manchester faces can be best addressed by policy makers.

About Juliahna: Juliahna completed her Manchester internship the summer after she graduated from BU with a B.A. in Economics. Her passion for public service (including her career ambition to serve as Mayor of Tampa) will continue in 2019 when she matriculates to the Harvard Kennedy School for her Masters in Public Policy.