Social Ties and the Incidence of Homelessness

Although almost all homeless people are poor, most poor people do not experience homelessness. We use a detailed national survey to explore the role of social ties—including connection to relatives, friends, and religious community—in explaining why only a subset of poor adults fall into homelessness. We find that lifetime incidence of homelessness is reduced by 60% for individuals with strong ties along each of these dimensions. Ties to relatives are most important, followed by ties to religious community, whereas ties to friends are not associated with reduced incidence of homelessness. We also find that among currently low-income individuals, social ties are not associated with income, providing evidence that our results are not explained by unobserved variation in historical depth of poverty that is potentially correlated with our measures of social ties.     

Homelessness old and new: The matter of definition

Abstract

The contemporary emphasis on the pathologies of shelter denizens and street‐dwellers tends to conceal the great variety of makeshift ways of life that have characterized “homelessness” over the centuries. Diversity notwithstanding, those considered “vagrants” were historically marked as suspect members of a poor apart, even when their numbers increased sharply. Because kin ties have consistently proven to be the first line of defense against “literal homelessness,” skid row researchers thought their absence (along with the lack of associated ties to work and community) to be diagnostic of the condition. Indeed, earlier research tended to see as “homeless” any “disaffiliated” persons, housed or not, who lived alone in unconventional dwellings. Not only have the new homeless poor, by contrast, proven to be more diverse—their geographic locus, age, gender, ethnicity, and signal disabilities having all changed—but their common element is less often ascribed to faulty social connectedness than to sheer absence of shelter. This paper discusses such changes and reviews definitions of homelessness and several approaches to its social construction. The paper argues that, although definitions owe as much to political as to logical considerations, it makes both practical and historical sense to view the streets and shelters as but one variant of a class of informal or makeshift residential settings that increasingly characterizes the marginally situated.     

Europe and America: A reassessment

European‐American relations have undergone numerous changes since the 1960s. At the outset of the period there was relative harmony and the prevailing idea of an inclusive relationship. Increasing American concern with her own interests subsequently changed the pattern, and relations were affected by a low American assessment of the role and significance of the European Community. Although the relationship has become more complex, it has benefited from the positive and patient attitude adopted towards Europe by the United States. However, Europe seems to have become more uncertain, less able to take important initiatives, less sure of its objectives.     

Explaining Public Support for Counterproductive Homelessness Policy: The Role of Disgust

Federal, state, and city governments spend substantial funds on programs intended to aid homeless people, and such programs attract widespread public support. In recent years, however, state and local governments have increasingly enacted policies, such as bans on panhandling and sleeping in public, that are counterproductive to alleviating homelessness. Yet these policies also garner substantial support from the public. Given that programs aiding the homeless are so popular, why are these counterproductive policies also popular? We argue that disgust plays a key role in the resolution of this puzzle. While disgust does not decrease support for aid policies or even generate negative affect towards homeless people, it motivates the desire for physical distance, leading to support for policies that exclude homeless people from public life. We test this argument using survey data, including a national sample with an embedded experiment. Consistent with these expectations, our findings indicate that those respondents who are dispositionally sensitive to disgust are more likely to support exclusionary policies, such as banning panhandling, but no less likely to support policies intended to aid homeless people. Furthermore, media depictions of the homeless that include disease cues activate disgust, increasing its impact on support for banning panhandling. These results help explain the popularity of exclusionary homelessness policies and challenge common perspectives on the role of group attitudes in public life.     

Predictors of Homelessness Among Families and Single Adults After Exit From Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Programs: Evidence From the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program

This article assesses the extent and predictors of homelessness among veterans (both veterans in families with children and single adults veterans) exiting the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, which is a nationwide homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program geared primarily toward those experiencing crisis homelessness. Among rapid re-housing participants, 16% and 26% of single adult veterans experienced an episode of homelessness at 1 and 2 years post-SSVF exit; the comparable figures at those follow-up times for veterans in families were 9.4% and 15.5%, respectively. Relatively fewer single adult veterans and veterans in families receiving homelessness prevention services experienced an episode of homelessness at 1 and 2 years post-SSVF exit. veteran-level characteristics, including age, gender, prior history of homelessness, and recent engagement with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care, were generally more salient predictors of homelessness following SSVF exit than variables measuring SSVF program factors or community-level housing market conditions.     

Economic voting in Latin America: A general model

Economics and elections have been much-studied in the highincome democracies of North America and Europe. However, little is known, especially comparatively, about economic voting in low-income democracies, such as those of Latin America. Here we offer the first comparative election study of the economic vote in this region. We apply a series of ever-more demanding statistical tests to an election survey pool of 12 Latin American nations, measured at three time periods (total N > 7000). Unambiguously, the finding is of highly significant, even strong, sociotropic retrospective economic effects on the incumbent vote. In Latin America, as in other democratic nations studied thus far, governments are rewarded or punished, according to the economic performance they command.     

流动人口的家庭结构——以北京市为例

本文以人口流动的家庭化趋势为背景,利用2006年中国人民大学进行的"北京市1‰流动人口调查"数据,分析了北京市流动人口的家庭结构.分析结果表明,流动人口中的未婚人群以独居为主要方式,已婚人群中以采取与配偶同住或与配偶和子女同住的家庭结构者居多.但是,已婚人群中仍旧有超过70%的人与配偶或子女等核心家庭成员分离.在京时间较长,拥有相对稳定的工作和较好经济条件的流动人口实现核心家庭举家迁移的可能性更高.     

A Whole of Government Strategy for Family Violence Reform

The Family Violence Reform strategy in Victoria is one of a number of contemporary government initiatives that have been framed within a whole of government model of policy reform. This article shows how the principles and processes of the whole of government approach were applied to the social problem of family violence. We examine the reasoning behind the adoption of this approach, what it was intended to achieve, the processes and activities that took place and stakeholders’ views about the outcomes and impact of this approach. The choice of a whole of government strategy reflected the need to address philosophical and organisational cultural differences about family violence and responses to it. Key elements were: the demonstrated commitment to reform and leadership provided by ministers, agency heads and senior managers; the involvement of community sector representatives; and the role of the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD).     

Human Rights Contention in Latin America: A Comparative Study

This paper reports original data on contentious challenges, especially protests, focused on human rights in seven Latin American countries from 1981 to 1995. An analysis reveals that human rights contentious challenges are most prevalent where human rights abuses are worse and authoritarianism is present and in countries that are more urbanized. However, the incidence of such human rights contentious challenges is not related to the number of human rights organizations (HROs) in the country. Results also suggest two different types of human rights contention. National human rights movements, present in Argentina and Guatemala, involved HROs and demanded improvements in the national human rights situation. The other form is ancillary human rights protest, in which human rights challenges are led by a variety of groups, focus on repression particular to the groups involved and are either short-lived or part of a more general wave of opposition. This form of contention was more prevalent in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.