The Department of Mental Health in Massachusetts is committed to preventing homelessness for people with serious mental illness. From the Urban Institute, this report is the beginning of an evaluation of the Homelessness Initiative, and provides an overview of the history of the Initiative for the last 15 years.

This GAO report reviews leveraging Federal dollars for Federal housing, community, and economic development programs. Leveraging funds can be useful for financing affordable housing and community and economic development programs, but can have limitations.

From the Funder’s Network, this paper examines how housing conditions can affect aspects of child well-being in their communities. The study reviews housing characteristics, such as the cost of housing, residential mobility, and the surrounding neighborhood on the health, social, and emotional well-being of children. Authors call for a more rigorous evaluation of existing housing programs and outcomes for children.

This study tests family homelessness based on patterns of public shelter use and examines whether family characteristics are associated with homelessness. It was found that 20% of homeless families are in shelters for longer periods, and some cycle in and out of shelters. The families with repeat stays have the highest rates of intensive behavioral health treatment, placement of children in foster care, disability, and unemployment.

Utilizing the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Family Resource Simulator, this article reviews policies in Illinois that support work and self-sufficiency among families. It was found that Illinois is successful in providing adequate family resources, but rewarding progress in the workforce is still a challenge. The Simulator showed that full-time, low-wage workers in Illinois cannot afford basic family necessities—including housing, food, health care, child care, and transportation—without the help of public work supports.

This project examined 25 local homeless assistance systems and the success of a strategy for creating a functioning Continuum of Care for the homeless.

This article focuses to answer if welfare recipients who receive housing assistance are harder to employ than those who do not receive it and if the type of housing assistance affects the outcomes for the recipient.

This research includes 27 cities and the status of hunger and homelessness. The research is based on information from the cities on the demand for emergency food and shelter and the capacity to handle the need, the causes of hunger and homelessness, programs to combat hunger and homelessness, the availability of affordable housing, and the outlook for the future.

This report, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), provides an update on trends in State and local regulations that affect housing development and reducing barriers to affordable housing for low-income populations. By first discussing trends in the problem of affordable housing, the article then reviews recent policies from around the country to reduce regulatory barriers to housing. It concludes by providing information on actions taken by HUD on the Federal level.

This article is an evaluation of the Family Permanent Supportive Housing Initiative and its role in meeting long-term needs of formerly homeless families in permanent supportive housing.