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New Research on Homelessness
1st of April 2008
The need for emergency shelter, longer-term service-enriched housing and family-focused, positive youth development activities is obvious in the nation’s capital and throughout the country. Our Bruce House youth shelter, for instance, runs at capacity all year, yet funds to sustain our work are scarce.
More than ever, we need to present to policymakers and our community supporters real, measurable evidence of the need for our services, and proven approaches for preventing homelessness and moving young people and families off the streets. So it is welcome news that The Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services have jointly posted a new compendium of research on homelessness. Toward Understanding Homelessness: The 2007 National Symposium on Homelessness Research contains papers presented and discussed at a recent symposium in DC.
The gathering of researchers, policy experts, practitioners, and consumers met in March 2007 to review the decade of research that has accrued since the two departments jointly published Practical Lessons: The 1998 National Symposium on Homelessness Research.
Individual papers and a complete version of the report, as well as the symposium agenda, presenter biographies, and participant list, can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.huduser.org/publications/homeless/homeless_symp_07.html. A couple of these papers address outreach and intervention strategies specifically for homeless youth and their families.