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.

This article analyzes whether access to automobiles and public transport affect employment outcomes for low-income individuals. The authors use longitudinal survey data from participants in the Welfare to Work Voucher Program, which was conducted in five metropolitan areas between 1999 and 2005. Multiple logistic regression shows that access to automobiles has a strong positive correlation to employment. However, neither access to public transport nor registered housing assistance has an impact on job attainment. Research finds that enhancing automobile access for low-income populations could significantly improve employment outcomes among very low-income adults, but that other forms of assistance – including for housing – may not be as effective.

This study from the NYC Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence provides information on the housing trajectories of youth exiting foster care or other residential programs for homeless youth and their met and unmet service needs. The study used administrative data and takes a look at factors predicting future service use and implications for this data for future work with youth in transition.

This working paper from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development explores the effect of employment advancement and anti-poverty strategies when used with those who resided in subsidized rental housing. The findings were mixed, showing some subgroups benefited from the interventions, while others experienced no effect.

This report from the Urban Institute highlights the work of three community-based organizations taking part in the JPMorgan Chase’s New Skills at Work Initiative. It showcases promising approaches and strategies to engage employers to fill their employment needs and train workers to meet these needs.

This MEF Associates evaluation report prepared for the City of Seattle evaluates their Career Bridge program. Career Bridge was developed as an alternative means of addressing recent gun violence in the city by addressing employment barriers of low-income men of color. The report focuses on the implementation of the program and the employment outcomes for the first three program cohorts that completed the program in 2014.