{"id":12946,"date":"2022-01-18T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/?p=12946"},"modified":"2023-06-06T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:11:58","slug":"mayors-and-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/2022\/01\/18\/mayors-and-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Menino Survey: Mayors and America’s Homelessness Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s Mayors Say They Feel Accountable But Unequipped to Address Homeless Crisis, Citing Lack of Funding and Public Opposition to New Housing as Biggest Barriers <\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost One-Third of Cities Have No Staff Dedicated to Homelessness; Nearly a Quarter Cite Reliance on Police<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While a strong majority of America\u2019s mayors feel that voters hold them largely accountable for addressing homelessness, they don\u2019t believe they have a lot of control over addressing the crisis in their cities, according to a survey of 126 mayors across the United States. In fact, aside from a general lack of funding, mayors cite lack of data, limited staffing, and public opposition to new housing and shelters as the biggest hindrances to their ability to address homelessness issues in their cities. These are some of the findings from the latest report from the 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors<\/a>, the only nationally representative survey of America\u2019s mayors, which is conducted annually by Boston University\u2019s Initiative on Cities.<\/p>\n

Almost three-quarters of mayors (73 percent) believe that voters hold them accountable either \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca lot\u201d for addressing homelessness in their communities, while only 19 percent believe they have either \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca lot\u201d of control over addressing the issue. Mayors in the Northeast are particularly pessimistic; just seven percent of them feel they have a lot of control, while 29 percent of their southern counterparts, in contrast, see themselves as having a fair amount of influence over local homelessness.<\/p>\n

Though limited funding is by far the biggest barrier cited by mayors, with 79 percent saying it hinders their ability to address homelessness at least some, lack of public support matters too: 63 percent of mayors say public opposition to new housing or homeless shelters keeps them from addressing the issue. Likewise, 78 percent of mayors indicate that homeless people experience at least a moderate amount of discrimination in their communities, more than any other group listed, including Black, Latino, and transgender people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayors believe that their constituents care deeply about how they address homelessness. Yet, they perceive themselves as having little influence over the broader structural forces that create homelessness,\u201d said Katherine Levine Einstein<\/a>, Menino Survey Co-Author and Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston University. <\/strong>\u201cMayors are often forced to weigh the needs of unhoused people against resident and business complaints\u2014all while managing a fragmented (and often underfunded) bureaucracy theoretically designed to manage the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

A minority of mayors define policy success in terms of reducing homelessness, and a surprising number of mayors (10 percent) do not have clear definitions for success. When asked an open-ended question on how they \u201cdefine success\u201d in addressing homelessness, only 40 percent of mayors explicitly outline a policy goal of reducing homelessness. Forty-two percent highlight better housing, while 16 percent mention access to better social services. Eleven percent centered the needs of non-homeless residents\u2014defining success in terms of reducing their complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our work with more than 90 Built for Zero communities, mayors have played a critical role in helping communities reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness,\u201d said<\/strong> Rosanne Haggerty<\/a>, president of Community Solutions. \u201c<\/strong>Mayors in communities from Rockford, IL to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi have shown that homelessness can be a rare occurrence when approached with the same discipline that leaders use to contain public health challenges: measurable, community-wide goals, and comprehensive real-time data that allows progress to be tracked and corrective action taken quickly at any point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around two-thirds of mayors cite limited human and social services and the lack of coordination between the many government and social service agencies involved as significant obstacles to successfully addressing homelessness in their cities.<\/strong> Improved coordination is a paramount concern given the wide range of actors mayors say are involved in setting homelessness policy, with Continuums of Care, local nonprofits, the police, those experiencing homelessness and public housing authorities cited by at least two-thirds of mayors.<\/p>\n

\u201cHomelessness is a complex and multifaceted problem that requires a coordinated and comprehensive response, and much more funding from the state and national level,\u201d said Madison, WI Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.<\/strong> \u201cWhile we continue to create and improve shelter options here in Madison, we need supportive services to address the health, mental health, education and employment needs of people experiencing homelessness. We need to help people move into decent and stable housing, while also working toward effective, long-term solutions\u2014including building more permanent, affordable housing options and investing in initiatives that combat underlying inequities in our community. Ultimately, this requires political will at all levels of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many mayors do not have dedicated staff to address homelessness, while others rely on police departments. <\/strong>Inadequate staffing likely contributes both to coordination challenges and limited local social services. Just over a quarter of mayors say they have no <\/em>staff exclusively dedicated to serving people experiencing homelessness. Thirty-eight percent have related staff in their social services department, while another 14 percent say their homelessness staff are in their housing department. A striking 22 percent of mayors place their homelessness staff in police departments, underscoring the outsized role police may play in a city\u2019s homeless response.<\/p>\n

The Menino Survey of Mayors<\/a>, named after the late Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino and supported by Citi<\/a> and The Rockefeller Foundation<\/a>, is an annual project to understand the most pressing needs and policy priorities of America\u2019s mayors from large and mid-size (over 75,000 residents) cities. In 2021, Community Solutions<\/a> joined Boston University as an additional partner to field a series of questions related to homelessness. In total, 126 mayors from 39 states were interviewed throughout the summer of 2021, providing a representative sample of mayors and cities nationally.<\/p>\n

Other findings related to homelessness from this year\u2019s Menino Survey include:<\/p>\n