Advancing a Five-Level Typology of Homelessness Prevention

This paper aims to demonstrate the efficacy of a five-level homelessness prevention typology, encompassing universal, targeted, crisis, emergency, and recovery categories. We argue that this typology can be deployed to illuminate key comparisons in homelessness prevention policy and practice between different jurisdictions and over time. Meanwhile, it avoids the confusions and overlaps that occur in extant categorisations. Using the UK jurisdictions as an empirical testbed for this analytical framework, four key lessons emerge which we contend have resonance across much of the global north. First, though there is growing evidence of the importance of both universal prevention measures (particularly the delivery of affordable housing and poverty reduction), and targeted preventative interventions (focused on high risk groups and transitions), practical action on both fronts has been deeply deficient to date. Second, and more encouragingly, there is a nascent shift in homelessness practice from an overwhelming focus on basic, emergency interventions, towards more upstream attempts to avert the kind of crisis situations that can lead to homelessness arising in the first place. Third, and also welcome, is a trend within recovery interventions from treatment-led to more housing-led models, albeit that this shift has been frustratingly slow to materialise in many countries. Fourth, across all of these categories of homelessness prevention, there remain substantial evidence gaps, especially outside of the US.

600Homelessness in Hamilton, New Zealand: debt as a tipping point?

Background The People’s Project (TPP) in Hamilton, NZ takes a Housing First approach to eliminate homelessness. A recent research collaboration provides epidemiological evidence regarding: the people served through TPP; their service engagement; pathways into homelessness; and lost opportunities for early intervention. Methods Data has been collected from a total of 755 TPP participants, including those from client registrations (July 2015-March 2017; n = 695) and a ‘pathways into homelessness’ questionnaire implemented in 2019. All participants were asked questions regarding their experiences of debt, levels of debt and the specific agencies and debtors involved. Results Common pathways into homelessness included individual factors (e.g. substance dependencies, family breakdown), structural factors (lack of suitable and accessible housing, deinstitutionalisation, service failures), and poverty exacerbated by debt. Of this cohort, 62% described current debt, and $2.8million (NZD) of debt was estimated (average of $10000 per person). Debts to government agencies were common and significant, including to Work and Income NZ, student loans, court costs and Housing NZ. Conclusions Financial difficulty, and particularly debt, is an important tipping point into homelessness. High levels of debt exclude people from permanent housing and challenge policies and practices aiming to end homelessness. Furthermore, debt to government agencies - required to invest in homelessness prevention and support - is a systems and policy failure. Key messages Financial difficulties, specifically debt, and systems failures are important tipping points for vulnerable populations into homelessness Debts owed to government agencies by the homeless population provide an opportunity to reorient the system to support homelessness prevention.

MUNICIPAL PROGRAM OF CARE FOR HOMELESS ANIMALS AND PREVENTION OF ANIMAL HOMELESSNESS AS A LOCAL LAW ACT AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE COURT DECISIONS

The paper presents the issue of the municipal program of care for and prevention of homeless animals set out in Article 11a of the Act of 21 August 1997 on animal protection in the context of the possibility of ascribing to it the features of a local law act. The issue of correct qualification of the municipal program of care for homeless animals and prevention of homelessness and the realization of statutory norms authorizing to issue this act by the local legislator is an extremely important issue due to possible legal consequences in the form of invalidation of a resolution of a local government body with ex tunc effect. The author of the article focused in the first part on the characteristics of such a form of local government action as the act of local law, considering its characteristics on the basis of the provisions of law, doctrine and judicature. In the second part the author assessed the municipal program of care for homeless animals and prevention of homelessness through the prism of features characterizing the act of local law. The aim of the paper was to review and discuss essential features of the local law acts and to qualify the communal programme of care for homeless animals and homelessness prevention as the local law act against the background of the court decisions.

Reforming the Engagement of Schools With Unaccompanied Homeless Children

Homelessness, with poverty and housing inaccessibility as its underlying structural drivers, has an enduring presence in all Western nations. While governments traditionally focus on supporting adults, families, and youth out of homelessness, increasingly attention is being turned to the significant number of children under 18 years who experience homelessness alone without an accompanying parent or guardian. Unaccompanied children commonly leave home early against the backdrop of family conflict and breakdown, domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, and neglect. They may sleep rough without shelter, couch-surf between extended family members, friends, and acquaintances, and access those youth refuges that will accommodate them. Without access to the consistent care of a parent or guardian, unaccompanied homeless children experience unique personal, systemic, and structural vulnerabilities that, without adequate developmentally appropriate intervention, will result in a range of physical, psychological, social, and educational harms. Schools, as the sole universal statutory service for children, can be central in the immediate safeguarding of children and their referral to services for additional supports. Schools can also offer a pathway into lifelong learning, employment, and community connectedness that is crucial to reducing poverty and enabling wellbeing and social inclusion. As such, schools have a key role to play in responding to unaccompanied homeless children by ensuring equitable access to education and engaging with the international shift toward child and youth homelessness prevention and early intervention. Research consistently suggests school-based programs are key to identifying children at risk, preventing homelessness, and improving learning outcomes for those who do experience homelessness. At a minimum, schools can intervene in educational harms, such as low attainment and early school leaving, that are associated with high mobility, a lack of support, cumulative trauma, and stigma. Addressing administrative and practical barriers to homeless children’s school access and attendance, implementing trauma-informed practice, and increasing awareness of homelessness are essential starting points. Further, the trend of articulating child wellbeing as a shared, cross-sector goal has increasingly created opportunities for schools, in collaboration with social services, to become innovative homelessness prevention and early intervention hubs that strengthen children’s outcomes.