Annotated Bibliography of Ending Homelessness

California coalition for youth (2018). A Call to Action: Prevent and End Youth Homelessness in California. Retrieved from https://calyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/RHY-Hearing-Paper-January-2018.pdf.

The various strategies put forward for purposes of aiding in curbing homelessness require a "big-picture" perspective. However, the achievement of this big picture requires a focus on the various states, while granting them the autonomy they deserve. The state of California is a focus region when it comes to dealing with youth homelessness; a sit possesses 31% of all the youths experiencing homeless in the United States. This is according to the UHCR, which estimates the numbers to around 11,222 unaccompanied homeless youth on a single night. The report also claims that 78% of these youths are unsheltered. This article, therefore, manoeuvres through options, alternatives, and remedies towards this menace, since failure to deal with the problem guarantees an old-age chronic homeless of the same youths.

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Elle, B. L., Carmela D., Alexander, T., & Molly, R. (2014). The Effectiveness of Housing Interventions and Housing and Service Interventions on Ending Family Homelessness: A Systematic Review. The American journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol. 84. Pp. 457-474. 10.1037/ort0000020

For the individuals staying in unsheltered regions, transitional housing, or those institutionalized, the warmth of a home is as distant as they are about owning their own houses. The housing first initiative, by granting them yet another chance to grow within and amongst their loved ones, and in safe and accommodative places, reinstates their safety, social stability, self-sustainability and family reunification.it is therefore through these dimensions (the ability of a strategy or program to reinstate individuals physically, mentally and psychologically) that an intervention's success and effectiveness is gauged against.

Groton, D. (2013). Are Housing First Programs Effective? A Research Note. The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. Vol 40(1) Article 4. Pp. 51-63.

There are two initiatives that have been put forward for curbing homelessness. These are the Continuum of Care, and the housing forts initiative. The former strategy aims at rehabilitating the homeless before they are housed, to ensure that they are capable of staying in the houses. The program, therefore, emphasizes factors like sobriety and mental health interventions. Housing first, however, overlooks the state of the individuals who are homeless and offers them a permanent house. The question however is, how effective is the housing first strategy as compared to the Continuum of Care?

Henwood ,B. F. Wenzel, S. L., Mangano, P. F., Hombs, M., Padgett, D. K., Byrne, T., ...Uretsky, M. C. (2015). End Homelessness: The Grand Challenge of Ending Homelessness. American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Working Paper No. 9. Pp. 1-21

Through the 20th century, and approaching the 21st century, the perspective and strategy towards solving the issue of homelessness had gradually transformed from being one of preventing and managing it, and became an issue of doing away with it for good. However, it must be agreed upon, that ending homelessness is not as simple as it sounds, due to its adversity, prevalence, and complexity. The authors in this journal even go ahead to term it as a grand challenge, one that requires massive research, strategies, as well as evidence-based intervention. Most efforts towards ending homelessness have been focused on two groups, the chronically homeless and the veterans, among them the housing first initiative.

Morton, M. H, Dworsky A., Matiasko J. L., Curry S. R., Schulueter, D., Chavez R., & Farrell, A. F. (2018). Prevalence and Correlates of Youth Homelessness in the United States. Journal of adolescent health. Volume 62, Issue 1, Pages 14-21. DOI.Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.10.006

Youth homeless, more so unaccompanied youths have proved a concern with many of these youths being susceptible to mental and physical health problems, substance and drug abuse, violence, early pregnancy, and early deaths. Efforts to control and eventually eradicate this problem has, however, met obstacles concerning the reliability and availability of data and statistics on the precise numbers of youths in streets, as well as those institutionalized. Many young individuals often find themselves in the streets maybe as a result of their running away from home, or being kicked out. The most vulnerable youths are the minority group of blacks and Hispanics, young parents, high school dropouts as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) youths. The author's utilized phone-based surveys to find out the number of homelessness in youths (age 13-17 years) and young adults (18-25 years), with the aim of bringing out the prevalence and correlation of homelessness. Homelessness, according to this article involves the typical sleeping in places not meant for human beings as well as youths spending their night with other youths, known as couch surfing. For a year of surveys and research, 3.0% of households recorded homelessness of youths within the age bracket of 13-17 years, with 1.3% per cent involving couch surfing. The prevalence of homelessness was therefore at 4.3%. The young adults recorded a 5.9% homelessness, with couch surfing having 6.6%, making the prevalence be at 12.5%.

Perl, L. &Bagalman, E. (2018). Chronic homelessness: Background, Research, and Outcomes. Congressional Research Service. Pp. 1-28.

The permanent supportive housing (PSH) is a strategy aimed at eradicating homelessness, primarily through its Housing First initiative. This initiative overlooks the abstinence or medical compliance of the homeless and only considers their placement in permanent homes. This initiative targets the chronically homeless. The logic behind the overlooking of the preconditions of the chronically homeless individuals in considerations for permanent housing lies in the cost of homelessness. These individuals are bound to utilize costly services while still homeless, among them hospitals, emergency rooms, emergency shelters, and law enforcement resources, a cost that could be effectively cut down by the permanent supportive housing initiative.

Ross, T (2013). No Place like Home: Addressing Poverty and Homelessness in the United States. Center for American Progress. Pp. 1-25.

"Stable housing is the foundation upon which everything else in a family's or individual's life is built-without a safe, affordable place to live; it is much tougher to maintain good health, get a good education or reach your full potential." This is a statement by the former United States president Barrack Obama. The American dream incorporates housing as one of the ways to make America great for all individuals. However, unaffordability of housing has made this dream a challenge. The great recession presents a situation where the wealthy had a smooth transitioning from this economic crisis while the middle and low class drowned in the crisis. Rise in rental fees with stagnation in income has made it impossible for many middle and low-class American to compete in the housing sector.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (2016). Point-in-time: The 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Office of community planning and development. Pp. 1-93.

According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2016, on a single night, 549,928 individuals were spending their nights in shelters and structures not, meant for a regular human being. Of this population, 68% were staying in transitional housing programs, emergency shelters or safe havens, while the other 32% were in unsheltered locations, among then public parks, streets and under bridges. The stratification and diversity of homelessness take the form of gender, age. The findings in 2016 revealed that 225 of the figures above were children, 9% were youths between 18 and 24 years, while 69% were young adults over the age of 24 years. On the brighter side, the studies revealed a decline in homelessness by 3% from the years 2015 to 2016. However, this decrease was largely affected by people staying in sheltered areas, with a 5% decline, while those staying in unsheltered regions increases by 2%.

Tobin, K. & Murphy, J. (2013). Addressing the Challenges of Child and Family Homelessness. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk. Vol. 4(1). Pp. 1-22.

Homelessness with regards to children, especially school-going ones has raised a concern to pedestrians, and the education systems. In 2009, the National Center for Homeless Education, estimated about 794,600 school-aged children experienced homelessness. The 2010 Annual homeless assessment report to Congress provides a breakdown of the ages of homeless children, with 51% under the age of six years, 34% between the ages of six and twelve and fifteen per cent consisting of youths between the ages of 13 and 17 years. Homelessness has negative impacts on the physical and mental health of these children, coupled up with intellectual deficits. This article goes ahead to suggest a few workable policies towards eradicating homelessness. One strategy is to implement a poverty policy that will enable elevate the economic status of the homeless parents. Other strategies include job training, income support, availing housing facilities and the provision of social services as in transitional housing.

Vijay, M., Hillary, M., Charles, M., Tiankuang W., Sara N., Parastoo G....Vahid D. (2013). Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness: A Fuzzy Cognitive Map approach. BMC medical informatics and decision making. Vol. 13. Pp. 94 10.1186/1472-6947-13-94.

Homeless is not a spontaneous process, but rather one that takes place through the relatedness of various factors, social, economic as well as political. These factors interweave within each other, ranging from social issues among them addiction, mental illness, and family instabilities. The social forces are thereby compounded by structural factors (economic and political) like high costs of housing, poor economic status, and insufficient mental services. Through a unique dynamism, these factors contribute to the levels of homelessness witnessed in the various states of America. With the said dynamism, most static historical models of determining the level of homeless, as well as the impact of the factors above on the same, have proven unreliable, paving the way for the fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM). The fuzzy logic facilitates the interpretation and presentation of the dynamic and complex issues surrounding homelessness, and bring out their interrelatedness.