Graduation Semester and Year

2021

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Public Policy

Department

Urban and Public Affairs

First Advisor

Ivonne Audirac

Abstract

Homelessness response systems evolved over the last 20 years into institutional regimes that assess and assign homeless people to a limited set of housing programs based on individual characteristics and experiences of homelessness through Coordinated Entry Systems (CES). CESs have become a central feature of US homelessness systems and are now required of all communities receiving HUD funding through the Continuum of Care (CoC) program, the nation’s largest source of funding for homelessness assistance. In theory, housing program assignments are based on criteria reflecting an assessment of participants’ degree of vulnerability for incurring greater harm if left homeless and an assumed capacity for developing self-sufficiency (i.e., exiting from homelessness and sustaining housing without assistance). Informed by theory explaining the causes of homelessness and a pathways research framework, this project investigates the impact of assessment and assignment (A&A) regimes, i.e., systems used to assess the needs of homeless persons and assign them to housing programs. It uses administrative data from a major metropolitan CoC (HUD region), participant interviews, and staff focus groups to understand whether the system’s intended effect on program assignments places the intended people in the right programs. The study investigates the impact and underlying theory of these A&A systems as they evolved from 2011 through 2019, observing regime changes in agency discretion over assignments and automation around assessment scores. While researchers have begun to critically examine the validity of homelessness assessment tools, little attention has been paid in the homelessness literature to examining embedded concepts such as vulnerability and self-sufficiency and their relationship to program prescriptions and designs. More research is needed to understand homelessness entrances and exits at aggregate and individual levels to improve program targeting and increase impact at the population level. Largely missing from scholarly literature on homelessness is research into the impact of current targeting, assessment, and assignment. There also is little consensus in the literature around the causes of homelessness and particularly their relationship to program design and targeting, and most empirical research has found little impact of housing programs in reducing homelessness at the population level. This study contributes to continuing debates over structural versus individual causes of homelessness and their relationship to housing program design, responding to the critique of pathways research as overly focused on personal agency and individual factors. Building on previous scholarship, this study adopts a theoretical framework incorporating structure with other causes of homelessness in a pathways framework while addressing research questions from both aggregate and individual levels of analysis. The study found that A&A systems developed in regimes that could be categorized by the amount of autonomy agencies exercised in accepting clients and the degree to which some automated system made decisions. Findings indicated that regimes of decreased agency discretion and increased automation coincided with changes in participant characteristics in the direction of local system priorities emphasizing greater vulnerability and targeted subgroups while excluding other subgroups (single women, black men) with unique vulnerabilities and barriers to housing. However, despite increased consistency between assignment targets and participant characteristics, selecting populations with more intensive service needs, program models and resources did not change commensurately, thus straining staff capacity, program resources, and revealing gaps in program models. Further, the study found that the timing and sensitivity of assessments understated participant vulnerability while failing to effectively assess capacity for self-sufficiency. Participant characteristics in Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) (a housing program that assumes people homeless due to economic life shocks can become self-sufficient if provided time-limited rental assistance and light supportive services) were not consistent with the program’s logic. The study found that RRH participants bifurcated into (1) a group homeless due to significant individual barriers to housing self-sufficiency, not dissimilar from those assigned to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs with long-term rental assistance and intensive supportive services, and (2) a group homeless due to structural factors and weak support systems. The study found that both groups struggled to achieve housing self-sufficiency with time-limited assistance, emphasizing the pervasive socioeconomic impact of low-wage work and careers and unaffordable housing. Program designs with limited and rationed rental assistance, as in RRH, failed to adequately address structural causes of homelessness. Taken in the context of the disproportionate assignment of black households to RRH, this finding is consistent with prior research that RRH program designs are inadequate to address the structural and individual factors in black homelessness, setting up the potential for a revolving door of returns to homelessness. This study also revealed that, alongside evolving A&A systems, housing program participants have increased the severity of their problems, indicating a need to increase and rebalance the funding ratios between limited (RRH) and long-term assistance (PSH). Two prepackaged housing programs (RRH and PSH) are inadequate to address the diversity of needs and capacities of people who become homeless, as well as the ubiquity of lifetimes of low-wage work and unaffordable housing. Finally, program participants and staff identified challenges to the fairness, efficiency, and effectiveness of A&A systems and associated housing program placements. Many program participants experienced lengthy periods of homelessness, particularly prior to their entry into emergency systems, where their homelessness could be documented, and attributed their eventual housing program assignments to luck or their own agency. The author concludes by suggesting policy responses addressing scholarly debates around program targeting and equity, the impact and use of assessment systems to address homelessness, the role of services and rental assistance in program models, and the relationship of homelessness response systems to mainstream welfare systems.

Keywords

Homelessness, Causes of homelessness, Assessment and assignment, Eligibility systems, Pathways to homelessness

Disciplines

Public Affairs | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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