Ungoverned and Out of Sight

Abstract

Abstract Homelessness is a public health problem. Millions of Americans experience homelessness each year, more than the number of Americans that suffer from opioid use disorders annually. Homelessness is associated with increased mortality and adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Longer durations of homelessness are associated with the higher mortality rates, severe mental illness, and substance use disorders. Nearly a decade after the Great Recession, rates of homelessness are once again increasing in the United States. In the face of this crisis, this book seeking to explain why different cities in the United States approach solutions to chronic homelessness in different ways. This research finds that homelessness policy is a highly decentralized and fragmented policy space. This often creates conflicting policy solutions, where publicly funded, evidence-based solutions are often undercut by short-term, reactionary responses, including punitive policing, that may actually promote homelessness in the long term. Overall, the limited coordination between fragmented policy interests and strong trends in decentralization of homeless policy governance contribute to reduced policy opportunities for evidence-based, publicly funded responses.

Topics & Concepts