Research on the relationship between homelessness and incarceration is growing. Often, studies examining experiences of homelessness after incarceration use emergency homeless shelters as proxies for homelessness itself. Our study employs a more inclusive definition.
We employ one national survey on over 2,600 Black, Latino, and White Americans fielded in 2024 and one survey on 300 unhoused people fielded in two cities in 2025.
Contact with the carceral state perpetuates homelessness for those who have some lifetime experience with housing precarity. Though all unhoused people are affected by interactions with the carceral system, unsheltered homeless individuals appear especially at risk of being subject to a pervasive cycle of homelessness due to incarceration.
