Low-income families and communities suffer a greater extent than others from disasters; with limited resources, few options are available to them to prepare for and recover from disasters. The results of a catastrophic event are not only physical, but they can also leave persons already with little means unable to afford temporary shelter, and lacking financial resources to rebuild or time to file for and await emergency assistance. This issue brief from MDRC highlights promising practices of emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, and community rebuilding which are lessons learned from the rebuilding process following previous catastrophic events.

The Disaster Recovery Services by Career OneStop includes state resources, along with a general national resource guide. The Toolkit contains a Resource and Social Services Finder for disaster assistance and a page that provides U.S. Department of Labor aid resources for general disaster recovery.

This bulletin, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides an overview of the literature around disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for low-income populations, and the vulnerability of communities and families with low socioeconomic status. The bulletin explores differences between these populations compared to others regarding preparedness prior to a disaster, response to official communication/warnings as well as the impact post-disaster has on housing, physical effects like injuries, financial recovery, difficulty with obtaining and receiving aid, depression, and posttraumatic stress.

As the rains from Hurricane Florence finally move out to sea this week, the long recovery process from such a devastating natural disaster has just begun. Families and communities impacted by last year’s Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are still in recovery mode, and many people continue rebuilding their homes, communities, and lives. This blog post from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response highlights available resources, including the Disaster Distress Helpline. Further, there are suggestions about how one can be engaged to support in recovery efforts; the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters are a great starting place. The blog also notes how to prepare yourself and your family for the next disaster and its aftermath, as well as how to learn about disaster recovery.

The Urban Institute was contracted by a Washington State housing authority to evaluate its 2013-2016 Student and Family Stability Initiative that provided supportive housing and employment to homeless or vulnerable families with elementary-aged children. Case management for those willing to work was combined with short-term financial assistance for housing-related costs, like searching or moving expenses. The program successfully raised participants’ income and promoted housing stability and income gains after the program ended, but also had high attrition rates. Households that opted out, failed to find housing, or failed to complete the program because they fell out of touch with case managers represent areas for programmatic improvement. The program may be more cost-efficient than providing long-term assistance like Housing Choice Vouchers, but it was difficult to understand how well the housing pilot program worked.

In a study by Abt Associates on the experiences of those entering homeless shelters, data showed that behavioral health problems decreased over time for this population. Post-traumatic stress disorder was the only metric unchanged, but levels of psychological distress, alcohol dependence, and drug abuse all lessened at the 20-month and 37-month follow-up assessments. Coming in to the shelters, parents exhibited high levels of behavioral health problems, which were found to be more severe for those parents who were foster children or who experienced domestic violence. These high levels of behavioral health problems decreased over time due to multiple factors, including improved housing circumstances. Behavioral health measures improved more for those parents who became stably housed as opposed to those who continued to be homeless, although substance abuse made stability more difficult to attain. The report notes the policy implications that stable housing programs will likely reduce levels of psychological distress, and also that substance abuse counseling programs can help homeless families find housing stability.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) assembled a comprehensive list of practical materials for stakeholders helping the unsheltered homeless. Their suite of resources focuses on data and analytics, policies and practices, agency coordination, and communications and includes provider tools, draft policies, and system templates that can be freely used and adapted to fit the needs of local providers. CSH also encourages feedback from users on the efficacy, lessons, and adaptions of its toolkit to understand best practices in the field and to increase the effectiveness of future resources.

This Homeless Families Research Brief by Abt Associates highlights the Family Options Study, which surveyed homeless families living in shelters with their children. The study found that family characteristics and experiences that predict another episode of homelessness after a shelter stay seldom predict doubling up with another household. Another finding was that while physical, emotional, and mental health conditions are prevalent in chronic homelessness for single adults, they seem less related to repeated homelessness for families with children.

This report on a study from the University of California, Davis, Center for Poverty Research identifies that 14 to 16 percent of the U.S. population has been unable to pay fully and on-time for either utilities or housing. The study also found that utility hardship is more prevalent than housing hardship, and households with solely utility hardship are more disadvantaged than households with housing hardship only. Also, poor health is the strongest predictor of both utility and housing hardships.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will begin to issue a set of six fact sheets through its blog “Home, Together” to bridge a connection between early care and education providers and housing and homelessness services providers. The fact sheets intend to support a whole-family approach that addresses the needs and strengths of parents and children experiencing homelessness. The sheets also strive to improve the integration of early childhood homelessness data into a broader community-wide planning strategy that seeks to make homelessness a brief and one-time occurrence.