Community Acceptance of, and Opposition to, Homeless-Serving Facilities

Abstract

Under what conditions will the public accept homeless-serving housing and social service facilities in their neighborhood? In this paper, we answer this question through a basic descriptive statistical analysis of a brief survey (respondent n=251) and a thematic analysis of seven focus groups with residents of San Diego, California (participant n=34). We find that although residents were not categorically opposed to such facilities, their support was contingent on a particular approach to addressing homelessness, often rooted in misperceptions of the causes of homelessness.