IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i22p4328-d284212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Do Homeless Families Exit and Return the Homeless Shelter? Factors Affecting the Risk of Family Homelessness in Salt Lake County (Utah, United States) as a Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Keuntae Kim

    (Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, 375 South 1530 East, Suite 235, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Ivis Garcia

    (Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, 375 South 1530 East, Suite 235, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

Abstract

Previous quantitative research on family homelessness has addressed a question of why some households become homeless. However, why some homeless families return the shelter to repeat their homelessness has not been explored well. This study aims at providing a comprehensive insight into the dynamics of homeless families by identifying the physical, social, and economic characteristics of a homeless family affecting the likelihood of their decision to stay, exit, and return the shelter. The relationships of factors with shelter exit and return were examined using Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival times and Cox Proportional Hazard regression analysis. This study employs a sample of 2348 historical records for 1462 homeless families registered to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017. The results indicate that structural factors such as subsidized housing program enrollment during a homeless episode and prior income play a significant role in reducing the risks of shelter exit and return rather than physical characteristics of a homeless family. Additionally, results show that variations in prior residence and exit destination of homeless families serve as factors determining the length of their shelter stay and the likelihood to return to the shelter. Integration of both shelter exit and return analysis results make policymakers and urban planners think about developing policies for coordination of housing and economic stability to address family homelessness.

Suggested Citation

  • Keuntae Kim & Ivis Garcia, 2019. "Why Do Homeless Families Exit and Return the Homeless Shelter? Factors Affecting the Risk of Family Homelessness in Salt Lake County (Utah, United States) as a Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4328-:d:284212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4328/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4328/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ellen L. Bassuk & Stephanie Geller, 2006. "The role of housing and services in ending family homelessness," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 781-806, January.
    2. Benjamin W. Fisher & Lindsay S. Mayberry & Marybeth Shinn & Jill Khadduri, 2014. "Leaving Homelessness Behind: Housing Decisions Among Families Exiting Shelter," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 364-386, April.
    3. Jason M. Rodriguez & Tessa A. Eidelman, 2017. "Homelessness Interventions in Georgia: Rapid Re-Housing, Transitional Housing, and the Likelihood of Returning to Shelter," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 825-842, November.
    4. Shinn, M. & Weitzman, B.C. & Stojanovic, D. & Knickman, J.R. & Jiménez, L. & Duchon, L. & James, S. & Krantz, D.H., 1998. "Predictors of homelessness among families in New York City: From shelter request to housing stability," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(11), pages 1651-1657.
    5. Bassuk, E.L. & Rosenberg, L., 1988. "Why does family homelessness occur? A case-control study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 78(7), pages 783-788.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Canham, Sarah L. & Donovan, Morrison & Rose, Jeff & Jones, Shannon & Garcia, Ivis, 2023. "Transportation needs and mobility patterns of persons experiencing homelessness following shelter decentralization," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Ivis García & Keuntae Kim, 2020. "“ I Felt Safe ”: The Role of the Rapid Rehousing Program in Supporting the Security of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Salt Lake County, Utah," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Ivis García, 2024. "The Value of Reentry Housing, Zoning, and “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) Obstacles, and How to Overcome Them," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Angelina L. DeMarco & Rebecca Hardenbrook & Jeff Rose & Daniel L. Mendoza, 2020. "Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts on Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Environmental Justice and Health Vulnerability in Salt Lake County, Utah," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-16, November.
    5. Erin M. Fearn-Smith & Justin Newton Scanlan & Nicola Hancock, 2023. "Exploring and Mapping Screening Tools for Cognitive Impairment and Traumatic Brain Injury in the Homelessness Context: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-52, February.
    6. John P. Allegrante & David A. Sleet, 2021. "Investing in Public Health Infrastructure to Address the Complexities of Homelessness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-8, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William N. Evans & David C. Phillips & Krista Ruffini, 2021. "Policies To Reduce And Prevent Homelessness: What We Know And Gaps In The Research," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 914-963, June.
    2. April Jackson & Bridget Callea & Nicholas Stampar & Abigail Sanders & Alberto De Los Rios & Jake Pierce, 2020. "Exploring Tiny Homes as an Affordable Housing Strategy to Ameliorate Homelessness: A Case Study of the Dwellings in Tallahassee, FL," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Meschede, Tatjana & Chaganti, Sara, 2015. "Home for now: A mixed-methods evaluation of a short-term housing support program for homeless families," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 85-95.
    4. Collins, Cyleste C. & Bai, Rong & Crampton, David & Fischer, Robert & D'Andrea, Rebecca & Dean, Kendra & Lalich, Nina & Chan, Tsui & Cherney, Emily, 2019. "Implementing housing first with families and young adults: challenges and progress toward self-sufficiency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 34-46.
    5. Guy Johnson & David C. Ribar & Anna Zhu, 2017. "Women's Homelessness: International Evidence on Causes, Consequences, Coping and Policies," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2017n07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Goodman, Sarena & Messeri, Peter & O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2016. "Homelessness prevention in New York City: On average, it works," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-34.
    7. Powell, Terrinieka W. & Wallace, Megan & Zelaya, Carla & Davey-Rothwell, Melissa A. & Knowlton, Amy R. & Latkin, Carl A., 2018. "Predicting household residency among youth from vulnerable families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 226-230.
    8. Timothy M. Diette & David C. Ribar, 2018. "A Longitudinal Analysis Of Violence And Housing Insecurity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1602-1621, July.
    9. Gurdak, Kristen & Bond, Lynden & Padgett, Deborah & Petering, Robin, 2022. "Transitioning to independent living: Experiences of homeless young adults in rapid rehousing," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Lars Benjaminsen, 2016. "Homelessness in a Scandinavian welfare state: The risk of shelter use in the Danish adult population," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(10), pages 2041-2063, August.
    11. McVicar, Duncan & Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2015. "From substance use to homelessness or vice versa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 89-98.
    12. Brown, Molly & Klebek, Lauren & Chodzen, Gia & Scartozzi, Samantha & Cummings, Camilla & Raskind, Alejandro, 2018. "Housing status among single adults following Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program participation in Indianapolis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 92-98.
    13. Zachary Parolin & Emma K. Lee, 2021. "Large socio-economic, geographic and demographic disparities exist in exposure to school closures," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 522-528, April.
    14. O’Flaherty, Brendan, 2012. "Individual homelessness: Entries, exits, and policy," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 77-100.
    15. Cassidy, Michael T., 2020. "Short Moves and Long Stays: Homeless Family Responses to Exogenous Shelter Assignments in New York City," IZA Discussion Papers 13559, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2022. "Do early episodes of depression and anxiety make homelessness more likely?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 654-674.
    17. Gorbachev, Olga & O’Flaherty, Brendan, 2009. "Volatility of Housing," SIRE Focus Papers 2009-07, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    18. Minjung Cho, 2020. "Housing Workers’ Evaluations of Residential Environmental Quality in South Korean Welfare Housing for Low-Income, Single-Parent Families," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    19. R Wallace & E Bassuk, 1991. "Housing Famine and Homelessness: How the Low-Income Housing Crisis Affects Families with Inadequate Supports," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 23(4), pages 485-498, April.
    20. Slesnick, Natasha & Dashora, Pushpanjali & Letcher, Amber & Erdem, Gizem & Serovich, Julianne, 2009. "A review of services and interventions for runaway and homeless youth: Moving forward," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 732-742, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4328-:d:284212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.