Homelessness
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- What are the most important factors protecting people from homelessness and rough sleeping?
- What more can be done to improve how we identify vulnerable populations and those facing multiple disadvantage? What is the role of data collection and data sharing in this?
- What can we learn from the COVID-19 shielding programme and other programmes that supported our most vulnerable groups during the pandemic? What were the costs and benefits of different interventions?
- What interventions are most effective at helping people to sustain tenancies after receiving support?
- How can services be better co-ordinated, integrated, timed and targeted to help vulnerable groups? What is the role of coordinating services for people at risk of homelessness who are being discharged from institutional settings (hospital, prison, the military)?
- How can the benefit system best help low income and vulnerable households with their housing costs? What is the impact of DWP’s expenditure on housing support? What factors impact on evictions, homelessness and rough sleeping? How effective are policies designed to reduce homelessness?
- How does the most appropriate support (financial and non-financial) vary by groups? Including younger and older people, those from different minority ethnic groups, refugees, ex-service personnel, women, parents, victims of domestic abuse and those with complex needs, mental health conditions or homelessness?
- What are the key economic and social costs of homelessness, including the impacts on children, and can they be quantified?
- Who is most/least effectively helped by the Homeless Reduction Act? What does that mean for how interventions are best targeted?
- What additional labour market barriers do those from disadvantaged groups (such as ex-offenders, homeless people), face? How can DWP best support those with multiple, complex needs to gain and retain employment?
- What lessons can be taken from early prevention strategies targeted at vulnerable groups (e.g. those at risk from domestic violence, rough sleeping and homelessness)? What implications do they have for effective policy design?
- How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect homelessness and rough sleeping in the longer term?
- To what extent is housing tenure (e.g. social rented, private rented, home ownership etc) driven by choice? What drives people’s choices? For example, is private renting seen as a ‘stepping-stone’ to home ownership? And how does this vary across different geographical areas?
- What is the impact of housing access, affordability and associated support on homelessness?
- Which elements of a multi-agency/multi-departmental approach to addressing homelessness have the biggest impacts?
- What further evidence is needed to understand better the causes of homelessness, the relationship between structural factors and personal circumstances, and how they interact?
- What does the evidence tell us about what works to reduce and prevent homelessness, including virtual and digital interventions? What are the most robust impact evaluation methods for assessing the impact of our specific policy interventions in this complex area?