By: Kimberly Johnson The Upstate Homeless Training Resource System is a collaboration between the Professional Development Program (PDP), Rockefeller College, University at Albany, SUNY, and the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. This project aims to reduce time individuals spend experiencing homelessness by providing trainings for homeless services providers. The purpose of these trainings is to enhance direct service providers’ knowledge and skills for working with people experiencing homelessness and to foster a sense of compassion for individuals living unhoused. The projec ..read more

By,  Jennifer M. Frank, LSW, PhD Millersville University School of Social Work The social work profession is charged with attending to the needs of those marginalized by society, those struggling to meet basic needs, and those in challenging life transitions (NASW, 2017).  But even while recognizing that stable housing is a basic human need affected by both micro issues and macro structures, content on this critical area of community practice is largely absent in social work curricula. When I began as an instructor at my university some 11 years ago I offered to teach our “housing el ..read more

By Calvin Streeter, PhD In 2014, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin established a food pantry to support social work students who needed supplemental food assistance. Originally established through personal funding from faculty, staff and students, the food pantry consisted of cabinets filled with non-perishable food items located in the school’s student lounge. Assistant dean for undergraduate programs, Cossy Hough, said “when faculty heard our students were dealing with food insecurity, they got to work. Our social work student council and our staff an ..read more

By Amanda Aykanian, PhD Homelessness is a topic that gains little attention in social work curriculum. Yet, it is a social problem that intersects with many of the topics (e.g., mental health, substance use, child welfare) and populations (e.g., youth and young adults, families, survivors of domestic violence) addressed consistently in coursework.  In thinking about why homelessness is not more prominent in social work education, some immediate barriers come to mind. Programs may not have faculty with expertise in homelessness, developing curriculum integration ideas can be time consuming ..read more

By Morgan Weber, Yadira Maldonado, and Rashida Crutchfield, Ph.D. Higher education in the United States is a critical avenue for social and economic mobility. College and university degrees continue to be essential as the wage gap between individuals with and without a degree continues to widen. While beneficial in the long run, the trajectory towards this goal can be tumultuous. As the price of college attendance and cost of living increases in many parts of the country, some students are unable to support themselves and are often forced to cut costs on basic needs such as food and housing. T ..read more

By: Ben Henwood, PhD We analyzed survey results collected from 532 Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) tenants in Los Angeles, California during the 4th week of March in 2020. Results show that nearly all tenants were aware of COVID-19 and 65% considered it to be a very serious health threat, which was a strong predictor of taking protective measures (i.e. hand washing and social distancing). Living in shelters or on the streets makes protective measures including social distancing and handwashing difficult and high rates of underlying health conditions, including obstructive lung disease, incr ..read more

By: Tara Ryan-DeDominicis, LCSW  With 3,446,291 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 1,092,815 confirmed cases in the United States, I do not think any of us would have believed the statistics we are seeing now even one month ago (Center for Disease Control,  2020). There are currently 123,717 confirmed cases in my home state of New Jersey where I am a social worker in the field of homelessness (CDC, 2020). There are currently 8,864 people in the state of New Jersey who are considered homeless (NJ211, 2020).  Considering the difficulties accessing this population, that numb ..read more

By Courtney Conley, P.h.D. One of the most feared eventualities of COVID-19 recently became a reality when San Francisco reported on April 11 the novel coronavirus had begun to spread through its homeless population. The institutional living environments which characterize most emergency shelters mean that containing the spread, in the absence of widespread testing, is particularly challenging. Moreover, individuals who are experiencing homelessness maybe some of those at greatest risk of death due to the novel coronavirus as they often have multiple co-morbidities, such as Type II diabetes, h ..read more

by Stephanie Duncan, LCSW As Social Workers, we were certainly given one of the most significant tests during Social Work Month worldwide. As we know a pandemic, known as Coronavirus (COVID-19) has hit the streets. While witnessing our streets empty, worldwide Social Workers and others in the helping professions are challenged with serving those who are sick while also keeping in mind our own safety. Social workers generally rely on human contact in order to provide service and assist the most vulnerable population groups – and working remotely is not always an option for all of us. Th ..read more

By Wonhyung Lee, PhD There are more than 1,000 business improvement districts across the U.S., and the number continues to grow. Business improvement districts, or BIDs, are formed when property or business owners agree to pay and make collective efforts to take care of the area by themselves. Each BID makes its own decision about how to manage the area through services like street cleaning, security, and marketing. As a result, many cities are now divided up by the boundaries of BIDs and maintained at a district level. My recent research focused on how BIDs approach homeless popula ..read more