Homes for the Homeless history

Street News, first published in NYC in 1989, is credited with being the first street newspaper focused on homeless issues, followed closely by Street Sheet, still published by the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

In 1991, the New York Times reported that within six weeks of taking office, Dinkins had shelved some of his ambitious homeless policy plans.

On August 18, 1993, House Bill 267 was signed into law to provide state-funded supportive services for low-income families and individuals who are formerly homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The Department of Public Aid worked with the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) to implement a pilot of the initiative in fiscal year 1994.

Lebow et al. (1995) noted from their retrospective cohort study comparing housed individuals with AIDS and individuals experiencing homelessness with AIDS in Boston that the unhoused men with AIDS were more likely to be African American or Latino and be IV drug users when compared to the housed men.

In 1997, the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) was formed and the Office of Child Care and Family Services, Bureau of Homeless Services became part of the new state agency.

Related studies in NYC (Culhane and Kuhn, 1998) found that the small group of chronically homeless adults comprised 18 percent of shelter use, staying for more than 180 days in their first year in the shelter system and accounting for 53 percent of the total shelter days used by single adults.

The initiative became part of the EF&S program until fiscal year 1999 when it was established as the Supportive Housing Program (SHP).

Many states—at the encouragement of the federal government—developed and worked to implement plans to end homelessness during the 2000’s.

Soon after Bloomberg’s first election in 2002, city surveys showed that the number of homeless families was on the rise again.

In a 2003 interview, Todd DePastino, author of “Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America”, said, “One famous quip had it that the hobo works and wanders, the tramp drinks and wanders, and the bum just drinks.

Continue reading…PART THREE: Bloomberg’s Homeless Plan Was Incredibly AmbitiousProduced in close concert with advocates, the mayor’s 2004 initiative aimed for a paradigm shift in how the city approached homelessness.

On multiple occasions during the harvest season this year the La Puente Home Homeless shelter reached its capacity and had to stop accepting new guests for the first time since its expansion in 2005.

Using administrative data regarding shelter utilization from NYC, Philadelphia, Columbus, Ohio, and the state of Massachusetts, Culhane et al., (2007) developed a typology of families experiencing homelessness.

In the late 2010’s, awareness of the disproportionate number of people of color among those who are homeless has been spreading.

2012;31(9):2130–2137. [PubMed: 22914341]Collin RW, Barry DJ. Homelessness: A post-industrial society faces a legislative dilemma.