Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Martha R. Burt on Poverty and Safety Net

Martha Burt, principal research associate in the Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services and Population, is a leading expert on homelessness in America. An author of Helping America's Homeless: Emergency shelter or affordable housing?" (UI Press, 2001), she has conducted studies for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that identify and describe promising approaches to ending and preventing homelessness. HUD released "Strategies for Reducing Chronic Street Homelessness"--the second in the series--in January 2004. Although no community has yet ended homelessness, the report documents community-wide approaches that are moving in the right direction.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) initiated the Mental Health Treatment Study (MHTS) to investigate the types of initiatives that would assist Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries in returning to work. This report summarizes the first stage of the MHTS development, which includes an expert review by a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) charged with making initial recommendations on the general parameters of the MHTS. The summary includes a discussion of several options for identifying a target population, developing intervention approaches, the mode of service delivery and overall design recommendations (e.g., random assignment). The TAP recommended that the intervention deliver an integrated set of medical and employment supports that can be implemented with enough fidelity for a rigorous evaluation.

Even in a booming economy, at least 2.3 million adults and children, or nearly 1 percent of the U.S. population, are likely to experience a spell of homelessness at least once during a year. This likelihood grows to 6.3 percent if one considers only people living in poverty, according to the newest national analysis of homelessness by Urban Institute researchers, Martha Burt and Laudan Aron. At the same time, there is a bigger and more diverse network of homeless services than in 1987, when the Urban Institute released earlier national estimates of the homeless population.

This study was done to gain more knowledge about ways that STOP funds are being used to improve services to women in historically underserved communities (STOP grants are provided to assist units of local government to develop and strengthen effective law enforcement and prosecution strategies to combat violent crimes against women). Through interviews with sub-grantees, the study obtained information about the groups served, the services provided , and their perceptions about the impact of their projects. Finally the report examined the strategies that sub-grantees believe have been most successful in reaching out to women in underserved communities.

There are two Highlights for each state. The income support and social services Highlights look at basic income support programs, employment and training programs, child care, child support enforcement, and the last-resort safety net. The Highlights capture policies in place and planned in 1996 and early 1997.

This report describes the creation and testing of the psychometric properties of a measurement instrument—the Program Environment Scale (PES). The PES was designed to gauge how consumers in nonresidential community support programs for the severely mentally ill perceive and respond to a variety of program elements and practices. Existing systematic assessment procedures have not addressed this critical aspect of nonresidential programs. The PES evaluates ten dimensions ranging from sense of staff availability to sense of "belonging" to the program.

In the continuing effort to improve human service programs, funders, policymakers, and service providers are increasingly recognizing the importance of rigorous program evaluations. This report lays out the basic principles of program evaluation design. It signals common pitfalls, identifies constraints that need to be considered, and presents ideas for solving potential problems. These principles are general and can be applied to a wide range of human services programs.

This paper investigates cognitive representations and coping patterns women use in their efforts to recover from a rape experience. The investigation used an approach integrating three different lines of research and theory: (1) stress and coping; (2) post-traumatic stress responses; and (3) cognitive social psychology. In addition, the paper explores the proposition that long-term recovery from rape occurs in two phases—an adjustment phase and an integration phase. Interviews were used to collect data on interviewees' pre- and post-rape lives. The data collection instruments and interview techniques were designed to examine the accuracy of the adjustment-integration concept.

Society must plan now for the requirements of the next century's elderly population. The authors use microsimulation to project the number of elderly, as well as their future incomes, living arrangements, and social service needs. They then show that the increase in demand for support services will grow drastically, even with optimistic assumptions regarding disability rates.