Research / Reports
- Research
Globally, education systems are faced with dual workforce crises: a shortage of teachers and a lack of affordable housing. Attracting and retaining teachers through improved renumeration, working conditions, and quality preparation have been central. However, initiatives to attract and retain teachers mean little if the workforce cannot find appropriate (quality and affordable) housing within commuting distance to their workplaces.
- Research
Unsheltered homelessness is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in major cities that is associated with adverse health and mortality outcomes. This creates a need for spatial estimates of population denominators for resource allocation and epidemiological studies. Our study shows that alternative data sources can contribute timely insights into the state of unsheltered homelessness throughout the year and inform the delivery of interventions to this vulnerable population.
- Research
Rooted in my upbringing in the South Bronx and informed by my extensive equity-focused research on housing, energy, and health, alongside practical experience in small-scale, place-based real estate, I advocate for a more nuanced and holistic approach to understanding and achieving “sustainable affordable housing.” By challenging the conventional emphasis on environmental and economic sustainability, I argue that social realities must also take precedence in this endeavor.
- Research
Urban poverty and homelessness keep growing while investments in health-promoting services and public infrastructure, including drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) have been decreasing. We used a mixed-method approach to collect data from 45 unhoused individuals in Germany identifying individual, infrastructure-specific, and location-based solutions to improve public WASH. Suggestions included adapting existing infrastructure, opening up existing, but inaccessible and constructing new inclusive infrastructure. Proactive, long-term sustainable solutions were preferred over reactive short-time options. Realizing safe WASH for all requires collaboration between homeless communities, governmental bodies, NGOs, businesses, and sanitation experts.
- Research
Lived expertise (LE) is a valuable form of expertise that can lead to more effective policymaking. Existing research points to important mechanisms for where and how to include LE. In this article, we bring the discussions together and ground them in the Canadian case of homelessness.
- Research
Homelessness in Victoria (Canada) is often invisible and too many government responses focus on keeping people out of sight and out of mind, rather than moving people into housing that meets human-rights standards.
- Research
AHURI: This research examines the organisational and resource implications of transitioning from ‘output-based’ to ‘outcomes-based’ funding arrangements for providing social housing in Australia. It explores relevant housing policy contexts, reviewing opportunities and key policy barriers for this reform goal.
- Research
Emergency shelters offer temporary sleeping accommodation to people deprived of housing and connect them to services. Service restriction is the practice of limiting or denying someone access to emergency shelters. This parallel convergent mixed methods study describes the characteristics, healthcare utilization, and morbidity of people experiencing service restrictions in Hamilton, Ontario, and explores the relationship between health and service restriction. Participants’ high healthcare need and utilization was shaped by criminalization, stigma, societal abandonment, and abstinence-based substance use policies.
