Teaching Note—Teaching Students About Homelessness: A Model for Curriculum Integration

ABSTRACT

Social workers are charged to work with vulnerable populations and often encounter those experiencing homelessness. Despite this fact, social workers do not typically learn about homelessness in degree programs even though the topic aligns with the educational competencies set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. This teaching note presents a model for integrating homelessness content into social work education. The model is structured into three levels of integration strategies—low, medium, and high effort. Each level corresponds to the amount of effort needed to plan and implement, the level of educator expertise needed, and the relative weight or significance of the topic to course objectives. The curriculum integration model is flexible and adaptable across undergraduate and graduate education.

On a given night in the United States, more than 500,000 people are homeless (Henry et al., 2020). While progress has been made to reduce homelessness, many cities have experienced recent upticks, especially in unsheltered and single adult homelessness (Henry et al., 2020). The high cost of housing, stagnant wages, and insufficient safety net programs make housing instability and homelessness unavoidable for many. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disparate effect on marginalized populations, including people experiencing homelessness. The homeless population’s vulnerability to the virus, because of congregate living circumstances and preexisting conditions (Baggett et al., 2020; Tobolowsky et al., 2020), has reignited debates about the adequacy of homeless service systems, housing efforts, and policy responses. Although the pandemic itself will eventually come to an end, its effects on the economy and unemployment will likely increase homelessness nationally for years to come, especially as eviction moratoriums are lifted (Blasi, 2020; Community Solutions, 2020; Cowin et al., 2020).

In addition to facing barriers to adequate housing, employment, and income, people experiencing homelessness often have complex needs, including chronic health conditions, mental health problems, substance use and addiction, and histories of trauma and adversity (Anthony, 2014; Barrow et al., 1999; Burt, 2003; Larkin & Park, 2012; Padgett et al., 2012). Further, older adults with a history of chronic homelessness often experience symptoms of accelerated aging, such as high rates of physical mobility problems, difficulty completing activities of daily living, and other impairments (Brown et al., 2017; Henwood et al., 2019). Unique needs can also stem from a history of system involvement, including foster care and child welfare (Bender et al., 2015; Fowler et al., 2017).

In 2015, ending homelessness was named one of the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work, recognizing social workers as being especially equipped to address the problem (Henwood et al., 2015). Homelessness has been called a “barometer” for social justice (Aldridge, 2020, p. e3). It is a symptom of systemic racism, failed support systems, and deep inequities in the economy and housing markets. In this way, high rates of homelessness reflect society’s injustices. Thus, homelessness fits squarely within the professional mission of social work, which stresses addressing social problems and challenging injustice (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2019; Larkin et al., 2016; National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2008).

Further, the profession’s person-in-environment perspective encourages the multifaceted and holistic approach necessary for promoting housing stability and addressing systemic causes of homelessness (Cronley et al., 2020; Larkin et al., 2016). Social workers also practice across a range of settings that intersect with homelessness, including child and family services, foster care, education, healthcare, mental and behavioral health services, criminal justice, and nonprofits (NASW, 2006; Salsberg et al., 2019). These mainstream services are crucial resources and supports for homeless individuals and families (Mullen & Leginski, 2010).

Because social workers are ethically tasked with promoting social justice for the most vulnerable in our society, social work education is intended to equip them with the skills needed for this charge. Ensuring social workers are knowledgeable about the causes and effects of homelessness and are prepared to address the needs of individuals and families currently or at-risk of experiencing homeless requires educational commitment. Homelessness is not often explicitly addressed in social work curriculum, and courses specific to homelessness or housing policy are uncommon. According to the CSWE website, only 16 of the 863 accredited programs offer a housing-related concentration. The lack of attention to homelessness in the social work curriculum reflects how the profession has overlooked this topic and raises questions about the preparedness of social workers entering the workforce.

How curriculum integration can help end homelessness

The National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services (NCEHS), the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness, and CSWE emphasize the importance of integrating homelessness into social work education (CSWE, 2019; Henwood & Aykanian, 2020; Larkin et al., 2016). While homelessness is not consistently addressed in social work programs, it clearly aligns with each of CSWE’s nine educational competencies (CSWE, 2019).

Strengthening the attention to homelessness in social work education has important benefits for ending homelessness. First, there is a broad need to scale up best practices and evidence-based models, such as Housing First and Critical Time Intervention (Henwood et al., 2015; Larkin et al., 2016). Doing so requires effective dissemination and implementation, which begins with education. While social work skills are vitally important to both models, including case management and motivational interviewing, they are often not included in evidence-based practice courses or elsewhere in social work curriculum.

Second, social workers in settings that serve people experiencing homelessness must be able to understand, assess, and meet the diverse needs of this population (Kidd et al., 2007; National Association of Social Workers, 2007; Olivet et al., 2010). Homelessness-specific services and mainstream settings that serve people experiencing homelessness face a variety of challenges to providing effective services (Lorenzo & Barbosa, n.d.; Mullen & Leginski, 2010; Olivet et al., 2010). Challenges include serving a population with complex behavioral and medical needs (Anthony, 2014; Jones et al., 2017), difficulties engaging clients in services (Mullen & Leginski, 2010; Stanhope et al., 2012), working in nontraditional settings (Lorenzo & Barbosa, n.d.; Mullen & Leginski, 2010), working across multiple service systems (Henwood et al., 2015; Mullen & Leginski, 2010), burnout and compassion fatigue (Kidd et al., 2007; Mullen & Leginski, 2010; Olivet et al., 2010), and confronting negative public attitudes toward the homeless (Boster et al., 2016; Mullen & Leginski, 2010).

Finally, homelessness intersects with many of the populations and social problems that social workers strive to address, including the other grand challenges. Building capacity among all social workers to respond to homelessness could generate the integrated and interdisciplinary approaches needed to effectively end homelessness (Henwood et al., 2015; Larkin et al., 2016). It could also inform more comprehensive and robust policy advocacy efforts, as social workers enter the field with an understanding of the intersection of housing and homelessness with other important social issues.

This last point is critical and has been a major consideration in past curriculum infusion efforts in social work (Rosen et al., 2003). It highlights the importance of building homelessness knowledge across the social service workforce. In other words, while the field would benefit from having homelessness specialists, there is an even greater need for homelessness knowledge and relevant skills among all social workers. As Mullen and Leginski (2010) pointed out, an imbalance exists—a population is highly dependent on receiving services from agencies whose staff are not greatly experienced or trained in delivering services to this population.

A model for curriculum integration

Compensating for this gap in knowledge and professional training warrants a deliberate and systematic approach (Mullen & Leginski, 2010). Curriculum integration is a useful strategy for enhancing generalist social work competencies so that students have the knowledge and skills needed to work with homeless and housing insecure clients across settings.

The possibilities for integrating homelessness content into the social work curriculum are vast and will vary based on course topic, level of education (e.g., Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, Doctor of Social Work, or PhD), and instructor knowledge. However, curriculum integration can be challenging. Inadequate faculty preparation and resources (Damron-Rodriguez & Lubben, 1997; Kropf et al., 1993; Rosen et al., 2003; Wendt & Peterson, 1993), lack of student interest (Berenbaum, 2000; Kane, 1999; Mosher-Ashley, 2000; Patton et al., 2001; Rosen et al., 2003), and curriculum and institutional barriers (Lubben et al., 1992) can inhibit integration efforts.

With this in mind, we present below a model for integrating homelessness content into the social work curriculum. The lead author developed this model to organize integration strategies into categories based on how much instructor time, expertise, and effort likely would be required to implement them. The strategies and successes of past efforts to infuse gerontological content across the social work curriculum provided a foundation of inspiration (Rosen et al., 2003; Wendt & Peterson, 1993). However, those efforts often involved large-scale overhauls of curriculum, significant financial investment, and administrative buy-in (Green et al., 2005).

While such an investment in time and resources would be wonderful to see for homelessness, it is unlikely without the funding and institutional support that drove the gerontological movement. Instead, integrating homelessness content into social work courses depends largely on the will and interest of individual educators, as well as their ability to modify course content. Because of this, we hope an integration model organized by effort level may help to encourage uptake. Our model is structured into three levels of integration strategies—low, medium, and high. Each level corresponds to the amount of effort needed to plan and implement, the level of educator expertise needed, and the relative weight or significance of the topic to course objectives.

Our rationale for which strategies went into each category is based on our experience integrating homelessness content into our own classes and the overall time expected for planning and development. While educators may choose a level based on their interest or time availability, they may also choose to work progressively through the levels. In this way, the integration model has the added benefit of building educator competencies and comfort over time. The following describes each level and provides examples to illustrate foundational ideas and inspire readers to develop methods that work for their own courses. For each level, we also offer assessment ideas for monitoring student learning and whether education objectives are being met.

Low-effort strategies

Low-effort integration strategies require little time, resources, or expertise in homelessness to implement. They are intended to be universally accessible for any educator interested in increasing students’ exposure to homelessness-related content. Therefore, these strategies are designed to give educators flexibility and choice regarding how much attention they pay to making explicit connections between homelessness and the course topic. In other words, low-effort strategies can be used simply to increase exposure to the topic or population, or they can be used more systematically to show how the topic intersects with the course content.

Two low-effort strategies include modifying required reading selections or activities. When looking to integrate homelessness into an existing course, a good first step is to review the course syllabi to identify the units or topics that would most easily connect with homelessness and use these as the targets for integration. The simplest low-effort strategy is to integrate homelessness through assigned reading selections, such as adding a homelessness-related reading or replacing an existing reading with one that addresses the same topic as it connects with homelessness. Instructors can then decide how much attention and time to spend on the topic based on their interest and comfort level. For example, homelessness fits nicely in courses that address domestic violence. Lewinson et al. (2014) explored the trauma narratives of women experiencing homelessness, including physical, emotional, and financial abuse from romantic partners. Thurston et al. (2013) investigated the unique barriers to housing stability for immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence. Reid et al. (2021) explored how young women experiencing gender-based violence and homelessness perceive the value of a trauma-informed group intervention. Alternatively, existing readings could be swapped out for comparable ones that focus on a homeless population. Instructors could replace existing articles with ones that discuss food and housing insecurity among college students (Crutchfield et al., 2020), what housing and neighborhood characteristics are important to older adults living in shelters and subsidized housing (Finlay et al., 2020), suicidality among homeless young adults (Fulginiti et al., 2020), or using a strengths-based approach with homeless individuals (Lindsey, 2000).

Another low-effort strategy is to modify existing skill-building activities to encourage students to think about homelessness and housing insecurity issues. In clinical courses, students can work with a case study of a homeless client as they practice assessment, diagnosis, and service-planning skills. CSWE’s website and recent homelessness curricular guide offer case studies to use when integrating homelessness into courses on direct practice (CSWE, 2019; CSWE Gero-Ed Center, 2020). In macro or research methods courses, students can practice assessing and critiquing approaches to evaluating homeless services programs, such as the value of participatory research methods when evaluating a transitional housing program for homeless youth (Powers & Tiffany, 2006) or the benefits of including process and outcome components when evaluating a women’s shelter (Dostaler & Nelson, 2003). In policy courses, students can analyze the circumstances, assumptions, and beliefs that result in some communities choosing to criminalize homelessness (Aykanian & Lee, 2016; Gerry, 2007).

For low-effort strategies, minute papers are one example of how to assess learning. At the end of a module, activity, or lecture, students are given one minute to respond anonymously to a prompt. Angelo and Cross (1993) suggested using the following two questions in a minute paper: (1) What was the most important thing you learned? (2) What important question remains unanswered? Minute papers are a fast, easy, and efficient way to assess students’ understanding of course content. They are quick to implement, quick to review, and have been found to positively affect grades (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Singh et al., 2011; Stowe, 2010).

Medium-effort strategies

Compared to low-effort strategies, medium-effort strategies move beyond exposure to homelessness to more deliberately and directly address the topic. Such strategies make homelessness a primary, rather than secondary, topic and likely have learning objectives related to homelessness or housing insecurity. The kinds of methods that fall into this category will vary across course type and with instructor expertise. One approach is to dedicate a learning module to one way the course topic intersects with homelessness. For example, an instructor teaching a course on substance use may already include a comparison of harm reduction and traditional abstinence-based treatment models. The distinction between these two models is relevant for understanding the evolution of homeless services and the emergence of the Housing First model, which uses harm reduction. A module could explain why Housing First uses harm reduction rather than a treatment-first approach (Tsemberis et al., 2004) and could include client experiences with each approach (Polvere et al., 2013; Robbins et al., 2009), frontline experiences with each approach (Henwood et al., 2011; Kennedy et al., 2017; Tiderington et al., 2013), and the factors that inform decision making around program development (Zvetina et al., 2009). A module like this would allow educators to meet general objectives related to understanding each model, as well as objectives related to the implications of each model in the context of homeless services.

Another medium-effort strategy is to have a course assignment (e.g., an essay, presentation, or term paper) require students to grapple with dilemmas or current issues related to homelessness. A research methods course could include an assignment where students use lessons learned from previous research (e.g., McInnes et al., 2014; Pollio et al., 2013) to design a sampling, recruitment, and retention plan for a hypothetical study of people experiencing homelessness. In courses that deal with community awareness and responses to social issues, understanding the media’s role in shaping how homelessness is perceived by the public is particularly interesting. Gowan (2010) wrote about public discourses that frame homelessness in terms of sin, sickness, and failures of the social system and how these discourses also affect how people experiencing homelessness perceive their own circumstances. An instructor could ask students to find and read newspaper articles about homelessness, identify themes in how the issue is represented by different media sources, and discuss how the framing of the issue may affect public perception (Bowen et al., 2014).

For medium-level effort strategies, where the topic of homelessness is addressed more directly, one method of evaluation is a pre- and posttest assessment. Pre- and posttests are typically composed of multiple-choice or short answer questions that can be self-administered in class or online. Administering a pretest before learning about a specific topic measures the student’s current knowledge. Conducting a posttest after the instruction has taken place measures increased knowledge or a growth in the level of understanding (Delucchi, 2014). Pre- and posttesting can also be used to identify areas that require improvement within the course (Schiekirka et al., 2013), so instructors can tweak strategies over time.

High-effort strategies

Those able to invest substantial time and effort can design an entire homelessness course, if it fits within curriculum, resource, and faculty capacity. Schools of social work have created courses on the intersection of homelessness and poverty, homelessness prevention and intervention (NCEHS, , n.d), and homelessness policy advocacy (Smith-Maddox et al., 2020).

Alternatively, educators may consider adding a homelessness-related experiential component to a course. Some schools have taken a collaborative and community-based approach, offering courses that include interprofessional collaboration (Petrovich & Navarro, 2020; Siegel et al., 2020) and service-learning opportunities (Charlesworth & Metzger, 2020; Jacob et al., 2020). For example, Nazareth College (Rochester, New York) and Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, California) use a service-learning approach to engage students in their communities’ annual Project Homeless Connect events, which bring together a wide range of community agencies and professionals to provide homeless individuals with access to needed services in one place (Charlesworth & Metzger, 2020; Jacob et al., 2020). The experiential opportunities provided through service-learning classes are useful for preparing practitioners to work with people experiencing homelessness (Forte, 1997; McNeil et al., 2013). Such courses offer real-life experiences for students to learn more about homelessness and the needs of people experiencing homelessness, while honing their social work skills. They also have the added benefit of giving students controlled and positive experiences providing services to and collaborating with people experiencing homelessness, as well as homeless service agencies.

For high-effort strategies, such as creating a course on homelessness, instructors may include a variety of formative and summative assessments to determine if course objectives are being met. Because of this, rubrics are an effective way to support student learning by demystifying expectations and grading criteria (Reddy & Andrade, 2010). Rubrics are useful for providing students with clear feedback, promoting consistency in grading across students, minimizing time spent grading, and identifying gaps in learning (Andrade, 2005; Popham, 1997; Reddy & Andrade, 2010). Rubrics can be created for individual assignments, such as presentations or research papers, and for a whole class to evaluate whether students have demonstrated the intended knowledge and competency skills.

Resources for curriculum integration

There are many resources to support integrating homelessness content into the social work curriculum. The first homelessness textbook for social work was published by Springer International in 2020 and features chapters written by faculty and students from schools of social work across the country (Larkin et al., 2020). Each chapter has supplemental materials to guide discussions, activities, and additional reading assignments. The NCEHS website has homelessness course syllabi provided by schools of social work and suggested reading lists. NCEHS and CSWE partnered to create a series of free on-demand webinars designed to raise awareness of homelessness-related topics among social work educators and to support curriculum integration. Most recently, NCEHS and CSWE collaborated to create the Curricular Guide for Addressing Homelessness (CSWE, 2019), which demonstrates how homelessness connects with each of the nine educational competencies for the social work profession and provides suggested readings, activities, and assignments. Multiple journals have also published special issues on homelessness, including Psychological Services (Tsai et al., 2017) and Families in Society (Fogel, 2016).

There are also a variety of training and professional development resources available outside of social work. For example, the Center for Social Innovation (www.c4innovates.com) has several self-paced online learning modules on topics such as effective outreach strategies and the intersection of trauma and homelessness. Additionally, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the National Homelessness Law Center, and the National Council on Health Care for the Homeless all have publicly available webinars on topics related to service needs, service systems, and policies.

Benefits of curriculum integration

Research suggests that exposing students to homelessness content, or having them work with homeless individuals or service agencies, positively affects their knowledge, attitudes toward homelessness, and comfort interacting with people who are homeless (Bender et al., 2020; Buchanan et al., 2004; Forte, 1997; Jacob et al., 2020; Siegel et al., 2020). For example, Bender et al. (2020) found that graduate students who participated in a 10-week seminar working with youth experiencing homelessness reported improved knowledge about homelessness and attitudes toward people experiencing homelessness. Students’ journal entries illustrated critical reflections on personally held biases and stereotypes and deep feelings of empathy for and commitment to working with the young people.

Opportunities in field education

The curriculum integration model presented here was designed specifically for integrating homelessness content into social work coursework; however, opportunities exist for pursuing similar objectives in field education. This endeavor may be something schools pursue in tandem with or independent of coursework integration. Those with expertise in field education might even develop a parallel curriculum integration model for this signature social work pedagogy—the strategies and potential barriers may differ from those used in traditional classroom education. Schools might consider pursuing the following: (a) discussing experiences with and strategies for working with clients experiencing homelessness or housing instability during field or practicum classes; (b) working with the local homeless service system to establish field placements in shelter, outreach, and supportive housing programs; and (c) developing a field education program to give students specialized experience and training in homelessness services, which could even be implemented in partnership with other universities (Gallup et al., 2020). With any efforts to integrate homelessness content into field education, appropriate learning assessment strategies would also be needed to ensure success.

Barriers to curriculum integration

Pursuing any kind of curriculum integration can be challenging when instructors lack foundational knowledge in a topic area, although low-effort strategies like reading swaps offer an easy starting point even to those with no background in homelessness. More detrimental to curriculum integration efforts are potential department, college, or institution barriers (Lubben et al., 1992). For example, individual departments or schools may restrict the degree to which instructors or faculty can modify course syllabi, readings, or assignments. Further, creating a new course, such as a homelessness elective, typically requires administrative and faculty approval. Therefore, for some schools, curriculum integration efforts may need to start with gaining approval and buy-in from administrators or curriculum committees. Similarly, curricular modifications must align with CSWE’s competency requirements. While most curriculum changes would not require CSWE approval, schools should consult policies around notification and approval if making major program changes (Council on Social Work Education, 2020).

Conclusion

The curriculum integration model presented here is flexible and adaptable across undergraduate and graduate education. It is structured to allow educators to start small (with low-effort strategies) and to choose strategies that align with their interests, expertise, and time. The resources discussed above provide a foundation for developing strategies, and several creative ideas were presented in the Journal of Social Work Education’s recent special issue on advancing social work education to meet the grand challenge of ending homelessness. Curriculum integration is an important first step toward better preparing students for careers in homeless services and in settings that serve individuals experiencing homelessness. Next steps could include faculty development, hiring faculty with homelessness expertise, developing partnerships with the local homeless service system (Donaldson et al., 2020; Lane et al., 2017), and creating enhanced field placement models (Gallup et al., 2020; Jacob et al., 2020). This curriculum integration model also offers opportunities for research studies to evaluate the effectiveness of chosen strategies for meeting learning objectives, as well as studies looking at instructor experiences using strategies within each category.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Aykanian

Amanda Aykanian, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. Tara Ryan-Dedominicis, DSW, LCSW, is the MSW Internship Coordinator at Optimus Health Care in Bridgeport, Connecticut.