Finding, Serving, and Housing the Homeless: Using Collaborative Research to Prepare Social Work Students for Research and Practice

ABSTRACT

Social work plays a key role in engaging with clients and communities directly affected by housing insecurity and homelessness, and advocating for the right to safe and affordable housing. This article describes methodologies of the Point-in-Time Count and Homeless Management Information Systems and proposes strategies for integrating additional content around homelessness into the social work curriculum in research courses and beyond. This integration can meet student needs regarding experiential research, as well as agency and community needs for effective collection and use of data. A case example and proposed best practices describe opportunities for university–community collaborations in homelessness research.

KEYWORDS:

• Data collection
• experiential learning
• homelessness
• research
• social work education

Notes

1. HUD’s definition of homelessness includes literal homelessness (persons living in a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or who are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided). Their definition also encompasses those who are at risk of homelessness within 14 days and lack resources or support networks to remain in housing, including persons who are losing their primary nighttime residence, those in a motel or hotel, or those in a doubled-up situation (HUD, 2011).

2. The Collaborative Applicant is the organization selected by the CoC to submit their application for homeless assistance funding from HUD, and often submits PIT and AHAR data to HUD each year (HUD, 2016). The HMIS Lead Agency is the organization designated by the CoC to operate and manage the local HMIS (HUD, n.d.).