Departmental Papers (SPP)
The School of Social Policy & Practice contributes to the advancement of more effective, efficient and humane human services through education, research and civic engagement. In pursuit of this mission, our theory-based masters and doctoral programs in social work, social welfare, non-profit leadership and social policy encourage students to think and work across disciplinary lines and cultures as well as across national and international boundaries. The pursuit of social justice is at the heart of the School’s knowledge-building activities. Our innovative educational and research programs reinforce our vision of active student engagement in their own learning as well as that of social agencies and larger social collectivities organized at the local, national and international levels.
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Publication Older Adults Sheltered Under Project RoomKey: A Client Population Profile and Recommended Approach to Ensure Retention of Housing through the Coming Transition Period(2020-05-15) Culhane, Dennis"In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County has, to date, executed agreements with 32 hotels/motels and is working with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to utilize these sites as emergency housing for high vulnerability homeless persons under Project Roomkey. This report is based on 1,498 persons housed through Project Roomkey as of April 30, 2020. A total of 297 of these persons provided with emergency housing are at least 65 years of age (19.8 percent). A Long-Term Housing Strategy Built on Two Objectives, Thee Commitments, and a Familiar Model: This report recommends a strategic approach to transitioning older adults from Project Roomkey to long-term housing arrangements that adopts a variant of the Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) model as a basic framework and places a premium on health and safety from exposure to COVID-19. The strategy would pursue basic two objectives: - Objective 1: Ensure all Project Roomkey clients are placed into safe permanent or interim housing upon moving out of the participating hotels and motels. - Objective 2: Housing placements of older adults out of Project Roomkey must include services that effectively address client vulnerabilities. To achieve these objectives, the County and LAHSA must commit to the following through a coordinated and collaborative effort with cities and with a broad range of stakeholders that straddle government jurisdictions: - Where continued occupancy in hotels participating in Project Roomkey is not possible, immediate placement of all clients in permanent housing or a on a rapid path to permanent housing arrangements that are safe and do not introduce added health risks. - Provision of Housing Stabilization Case Management Services to all clients, encompassing mainstream benefits enrollment (e.g. SSI, SSDI, GR, CalFresh), housing transition counseling, landlord negotiation, coordination of move-in assistance, and transition to community health and service supports. A flexible approach in fitting clients to a diverse range of possible long-term subsidized housing options on a client-by-client basis, one informed by specific needs and vulnerabilities and oriented around safety from potential COVID-19 exposure through opportunities for self-isolation and quarantine."Publication Los Angeles County's Homelessness Initiative (HI): Annual Performance Evaluation: Year Three Outcomes(2020-01-06) Culhane, DennisIn February 2016, the LA County (LA County) Board (Board) formally approved a comprehensive set of strategies to combat the County’s homeless crisis. Coordinated by the CEO’s Homeless Initiative (HI), the HI strategies are the product of a collaborative process that involved not only County but also non‐County stakeholders, including cities, municipal leaders, community organizations, advocates, and concerned citizens. The strategies are grouped into six focus areas seeking to (a) prevent homelessness, (b) expand subsidized housing, (c) increase income among those who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless, (d) enhance homeless case management and supportive services, (e) create a coordinated homeless services system, and (f) expand affordable and homeless housing.Publication Final Report: A Review of Year Two of Los Angeles County's Homeless Initiative(2019-03) Culhane, DennisIn February 2016, the LA County Board of Supervisors formally approved a comprehensive set of strategies, administered under the County’s Chief Executive Office (CEO), that provide the framework for LA County’s Homeless Initiative (HI). The HI strategies are the product of a collaborative planning process that involved the participation of multiple County departments, cities and community organizations.Publication An Evaluation of the City of Philadelphia's Kensington Encampment Resolution Pilot(2019-03-05) Culhane, DennisThis evaluation is an independent examination of the City of Philadelphia’s Encampment Resolution Pilot (ERP), an initiative to shut down two homeless encampments located in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. The closure process involved an extended period of active outreach that facilitated access to housing, substance use treatment, and other services to people who stayed in the encampments and faced displacement. We examined two primary outcomes: first, whether the encampments were closed as scheduled and remained closed; and, second, the extent to which the people who were sleeping in the encampments (i.e., the target population) received needed services. The evaluation is based upon five primary data collection activities that, combined, provided a timely, multifaceted assessment of ERP, and particularly of the impacts ERP had on both those displaced by the initiative and the area of Kensington surrounding these encampments. These data components are: 1. An “Outreach Encampment and Survey” of 169 persons who frequented the encampments; 2. Data collected as part of ERP outreach services and linked to the City of Philadelphia’s integrated data system of services records known as CARES; 3. Direct observation of community meetings, ERP planning meetings, and encampment sites; 4. Interviews with people who stayed in encampments and community members as well as advocates for those staying in the encampments, and ERP officials and providers; and 5. Documents and records from City of Philadelphia and other sources, and media coverage related to ERP and KensingtonPublication A Roadmap for Phased Implementation of an Older Adult Housing Pilot in Los Angeles County(2020-09-21) Culhane, DennisAn Increasingly Urgent Problem Collides with the Challenging Realities of a Pandemic. The implementation framework provided here builds on a March 24, 2020 report prepared by the CEO’s Office of Homeless Initiative (HI), which provides the basic contours for an Older Adult Housing Pilot that would seek to permanently house all willing homeless adults who are at least 65 years of age. The HI’s report, however, represents deliberations and the realities of Los Angeles County’s homeless services system prior to the onset of the coronavirus public health emergency. The implications of the pandemic have unfolded contemporaneously with the development of a pilot implementation approach and created some challenges for the pilot planning process during the past six months, particularly in terms of questions about pilot funding sources. While some details have gradually come into sharper focus over this period, a number of key issues remain unresolved at the present time, and the availability of some previously assumed funding sources has been deferred until Year Two of the pilot, at the earliest. Within this fluid context, the plan we offer in this report - the projected population for which is shown in Figure 1, along with the costs associated with serving these clients - represents a necessary modification of our initial plan but also reflects the persistence of a basic tension: While COVID-19 temporarily, but indefinitely, places restrictions on the use of previously-available resources, older adult homelessness is a growing and increasingly expensive problem, one likely to worsen in the absence of a systematic and coordinated intervention. More immediately, the heightened risk of complications and fatality for older adults who become infected with the coronavirus adds to the urgency of moving homeless older adults from the streets to the safety of permanent housing.Publication The Patterns and Costs of Services Use among Homeless Families(Journal of Community Psychology, 2011) Culhane, DennisThis study examines families’ use of behavioral health hospitalization and foster care placement prior to, during and following shelter use, comparing families based on shelter pattern and type of housing exit. Results show that inpatient and foster care services use drops in the homelessness period, but rebounds following exit, regardless of pattern of shelter use, and type of housing exit. Results suggest that shelters supplant use of services, but not on a sustained basis. Despite declines in concurrent services use, the homelessness period is overall more costly for episodically and long-term shelter users, primarily owing to the high costs of shelter. High rates of inpatient and foster care services use following the homeless spell suggest that providers of homeless assistance should systematically screen and refer homeless families to on-going community-based service supports. Service use patterns indicate that homeless spells may disrupt continuity of care with community-based health and social services.Publication The Aging of Contemporary Homelessness(Contexts, 2013) Culhane, DennisHomelessness is currently at a demographic crossroad. This presents a unique opportunity for hastening its demise. In the thirty years since homelessness first manifested itself in American cities in its contemporary form, it has ascended to one of the most prominent American social problems. Despite the current push by advocacy organizations to end homelessness, many expect it will always be with us. In its longevity, however, lies the potential for its decline, provided we do not repeat this cycle with a new generation of homeless.Publication Developing a Global Framework for Conceptualising and Measuring Homelessness(Habitat International, 2016) Culhane, DennisHomelessness has long been recognised as a global phenomenon, affecting poorer populations in both the developed and developing worlds. However, acute housing need has often struggled to achieve the same level of priority at an international level as the satisfaction of other basic needs, such as for food, water, healthcare and education. In this paper we present a broad-based Global Homelessness Framework as a means of providing a ‘frame of reference’ for cross-national engagement in this field, but recommend that concerted international action focuses on a relatively narrow definition of homelessness encompassing people without any form of accommodation (the ‘unsheltered’ group who are sleeping rough or in places not intended for human habitation) and those living in temporary or crisis accommodation specifically provided for homeless people. We demonstrate that current data is insufficient to generate a comprehensive and defensible worldwide ‘count’ of homeless people, and set out proposals to facilitate moves towards more reliable homelessness estimates at local, national and global levels. At the same time, however, we argue that at least some meaningful trend data is already available for large parts of the Global North, and for some countries and cities in the Global South, so that it would be both feasible and valuable to systematically track these ‘directions of travel’ over time.Publication The Integrated Data System Approach: A Vehicle to More Effective and Efficient Data-Driven Solutions in Government(Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, 2017) Culhane, DennisThe IDS approach introduced in this paper is derived from the careful study of the best practices of fully-functioning integrated data systems that are part of the Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy Network. The purpose of this paper is threefold: First, it will present the conceptual framework for the IDS approach, describing how the IDS approach incorporates heuristic concepts from the major recent reform movements in public administration: performance management, continuous quality improvement, and evidence-based policymaking. Second, it will detail how these core features of the IDS approach are used to build a sustainable infrastructure to support a fully-functioning IDS for state and local government. Finally, the paper will illustrate how the IDS approach can be used as an effective and efficient vehicle to data-driven solutions through a close look at a single inquiry cycle and an overview of the larger systematic and iterative social problem-solving process within government.Publication Quality Framework for Integrated Data Systems(Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, 2021-11-05) Culhane, DennisIntegrated Data Systems (IDS) are a powerful approach to combining client, patient, student and taxpayer information from multiple sources to better understand the nature, extent and potential best ways to serve the needs of the public. In this guide, staff from Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy lay out a quality framework for addressing the core responsibilities of a highly functional IDS: Governance, Legal, Technical, Capacity and Impact.