Homelessness Prevention and Intervention in Social Work

This important text provides a comprehensive survey of homelessness in America: its scope and causes, its diverse populations, and the array of responses at the individual, community, and systems levels. Expert contributors explore the links between trauma and homelessness, the cycle of homelessness and health/mental health problems, and barriers preventing people from accessing services. Case studies of effective programs and practices focus on science-based interventions, broad understanding of client needs, and close coordination between systems and agencies. Finally, specialized chapters discuss issues and experiences common to homeless youth and young adults, including housing instability on college campuses and empowerment-based strategies for engaging youth voice in programming .

Included in the coverage:

• Homelessness and health disparities: a health equity lens
  
• Affordable housing and housing policy responses to homelessness
  
• Street talk: homeless discourses and the politics of service provision
  
• Multisectoral collaborations to address homelessness
  
• Trauma-informed care in homelessness service settings: challenges and opportunities
  
• Incorporating youth voice into services for young people experiencing homelessness
  

Homelessness Prevention and Intervention in Social Work fills a critical gap in the social work curriculum as a main or a supplementary text. It also makes an accessible resource for clinicians and community practitioners seeking current knowledge on the topic, practical approaches to working with clients experiencing homelessness, and useful information for effective program and policy design.

Heather Larkin, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University at Albany (SUNY) School of Social Welfare and Director of the National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services. Dr. Larkin has researched ACEs among people experiencing homelessness, older adults in public housing, and New Yorkers. She translates ACE knowledge into policies, programs, and practice and engages in collaborative, community-engaged research. She co-developed the Restorative Integral Support (RIS) model to guide an ACE Response strategy that integrates services within intentionally developed restorative contexts that foster resilience and recovery. She has been honored for her work by the New York State Council on Children and Families and the New York State Senate. She has twice earned Exemplary Community Engagement Awards and was named as a Sage Colleges Champion of Character Educator Leadership Award winner.

Amanda Aykanian, MA, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research focuses on the intersection of homelessness, geographic mobility, and service use. Her article titled, "Service and Policy Considerations When Working with Highly Mobile Homeless Youth: Perspectives from the Frontlines," was recently published in Children and Youth Services Review. Amanda is the Research and Project Lead at the National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services, a consortium of schools of social work engaged in supporting and strengthening homeless services and preparing social workers to work and provide leadership in homeless services settings. In this role, Amanda leads research and evaluation activities and coordinates the center's National Homelessness Social Work Initiative. Additionally, she has more than a decade of community-based program evaluation and data analysis experience. As a Research Associate at Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP), she is a project director and analyst on multiple federally-funded projects as part of AHP’s Center for Research and Evaluation. She currently leads the evaluation of a permanent supportive housing project in Boston and an offender reentry project in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

Calvin L. Streeter, Ph.D., is the Meadows Foundation Centennial Professor in the Quality of Life in the Rural Environment in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. His social work practice experience includes rural community development, program planning and implementation, and program evaluation. In addition to his interest in homelessness, his research has focused on school-based services, rural social work, disability services, and employment policy. His scholarship has been featured in more than 80 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, monographs, conference proceedings, technical papers and research reports, as well as numerous national and international conference presentations. He is active in many local and national causes and has served on numerous non-profit boards and taskforces.