Publications on Homelessness

The foreclosure crisis is now having dramatic effects throughout America. In mid-2008, recognizing that this phenomenon was still quite new, the Open Society Institute asked the Urban Institute to scan available research to document what we know about: (1) the way foreclosures impact families; (2) how foreclosures affect communities; and (3) the efforts now underway, or being suggested, to address the crisis, focusing on actions at the local level. This report presents the results of this review. A final section offers the authors' recommendations on priorities for additional research to fill important gaps in the knowledge base.

The foreclosure crisis is now having dramatic effects throughout America. In mid-2008, recognizing that this phenomenon was still quite new, the Open Society Institute asked the Urban Institute to scan available research to document what we know about: (1) the way foreclosures impact families; (2) how foreclosures affect communities; and (3) the efforts now underway, or being suggested, to address the crisis, focusing on actions at the local level. This report summarizes a longer report presenting the results of this review.

"The Impacts of Foreclosures on Families and Communities" details what is known about how foreclosures adversely affect households and their neighborhoods — from children and the elderly to public safety and local property tax revenues. It also looks at policies, programs, and response strategies to prevent or mitigate the fallout.

In this testimony, Mary Cunningham discusses different housing-based interventions that policymakers could adopt to end homelessness among veterans. Increasing HUD-VASH vouchers and tightly targeting them to high need veterans, as well as increasing rapid rehousing programs and affordable housing programs for low-income veterans who are homeless primarily for economic reasons are discussed.

Mary Cunningham, author of "Preventing and Ending Homelessness—Next Steps," answers five questions about how to combat homelessness. Evidence-based approaches have cut homelessness among chronically homeless single adults and new strategies are now being adopted to help homeless families. Investing in proven strategies is crucial as the economic crisis puts more people at risk of ending up in shelters and threatens to reverse the progress communities have made toward ending and preventing homelessness.