Transportation and homelessness: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Transportation disadvantage can negatively impact access to employment and educational opportunities, healthcare, and social services. Cost of transportation, in particular, has been found to prevent individuals’ upward mobility out of homelessness. Given the vulnerability of persons of color and those living below the poverty line and the negative implications of transportation disadvantage, the author undertook the current study to assess the extent to which scholars are analyzing transportation and its impact on adults experiencing homelessness. An exhaustive search yielded 3102 potentially relevant studies. Thirteen of these studies met the inclusion criteria for further analyses. A priori inclusion criteria included studies: (1) published between 1997 and December 2017 in refereed academic journals; (2) published in English; (3) sampling a population of adults who self-identify as currently or formerly homeless; (4) conducted using empirical quantitative or mixed methods (excluding purely qualitative, theoretical and policy analyses), and; (5) which analyzed transportation as a primary variable of interest. Findings of this research demonstrate that transportation is a critical, although under-researched, variable in the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness. Homelessness service providers, therefore, should work to shift the conversation from transportation as a privilege to transportation equity for all.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• transportation
• systematic review
• cross-national research
• poverty

Acknowledgement

This study was funded by a fellowship from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC). The author would also like to thank Courtney Cronley, PhD, MSSW, and Brittany Eghaneyan, LMSW for their expertise and consultation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Erin Roark Murphy, LMSW, is a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research focuses on homelessness, with specific emphasis on the aging subpopulation, transportation disadvantage, and arts-based research methodologies and interventions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) through a fellowship.