Previous quantitative research on family homelessness has addressed a question of why some households become homeless. However, why some homeless families return the shelter to repeat their homelessness has not been explored well. This study aims at providing a comprehensive insight into the dynamics of homeless families by identifying the physical, social, and economic characteristics of a homeless family affecting the likelihood of their decision to stay, exit, and return the shelter. The relationships of factors with shelter exit and return were examined using Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival times and Cox Proportional Hazard regression analysis. This study employs a sample of 2348 historical records for 1462 homeless families registered to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017. The results indicate that structural factors such as subsidized housing program enrollment during a homeless episode and prior income play a significant role in reducing the risks of shelter exit and return rather than physical characteristics of a homeless family. Additionally, results show that variations in prior residence and exit destination of homeless families serve as factors determining the length of their shelter stay and the likelihood to return to the shelter. Integration of both shelter exit and return analysis results make policymakers and urban planners think about developing policies for coordination of housing and economic stability to address family homelessness.

Homelessness is a public health issue that many organizations are addressing through a Housing First Model. One such organization is The Road Home (TRH), which provides services to homeless individuals and families in Salt Lake County. TRH is perhaps best known for their emergency shelters, but the organization also administers the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP), designed to help families experiencing homelessness transition back into stable housing. Those experiencing homelessness tend to have high rates of chronic mental/physical disabilities as well as issues related to substance abuse. Having a home is the first step toward achieving some kind of stability in their lives. The RRHP allows families to find housing in the private rental market and will cover the initial costs and several months of rent for clients. While the program has been praised by policymakers and social service providers for helping homeless families find rental housing, there is no empirical research about participant perspectives regarding their residential (in)security. The research question of this article is: what is the role of the RRHP in supporting the security of families experiencing homelessness? Researchers collected qualitative data through focus groups and interviews with 31 participants, 23 families experiencing homelessness, two landlords, six case managers, and service providers. Lastly, we identify recommendations for program improvements based on information gathered from research participants. It is our hope that the information presented in this article can and will be used in a way that improves public health by increasing the residential security of families experiencing homelessness.

This study is concerned with homeless families that returned to the shelter and qualified to participate in the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP) again. Because RRH is a short-term voucher where families rent in the private market, one of the main barriers to finding housing is having an eviction record. Focus groups with tenants and case managers/service providers, as well as interviews with landlords participating in The Road Home’s RRHP in Salt Lake County, found that families tend to find housing in buildings where other homeless families with multiple evictions and criminal records are concentrated. Tenants often encounter lenient landlords, only to be evicted at a later time. Families returned to the shelter for various reasons, but mainly because after their RRH voucher ends, households end up violating their leases due to nonpayment. The article offers recommendations to those administering RRHP about how evictions and becoming homeless again can be prevented.

There has been an increasing body of literature analyzing eviction in different cities and contexts in urban studies, public health, sociology, geography, and housing studies. Still, little has been known about the underlying spatial point process of how housing evictions are generated. After geocoding eviction filing cases in Salt Lake County in 2015, this study analyzed factors affecting the intensity of eviction using the inhomogeneous Poisson point process (IPP) model. The IPP model result identified demographic, economic, and housing covariates associated with the high intensity of eviction filings. This study also found a significant relationship between eviction filings and the built environment characteristics—such as proximity to central business district (CBD) and light rail transit stations, intersection density, and land use mix score. Particularly, this study found that the intensity of housing evictions is negatively associated with an increase in the distance to CBD when CBD was transformed into gentrified areas led by new high-end apartment constructions during the housing boom since 2000. The article ends with some recommendations for policymakers, including the implementation of an “anti-eviction zone” in CBD areas to reduce the high intensity of housing evictions led by new high-end apartment constructions.

Planners and planning scholars have debated the effects of public transit on changes in various employment outcomes. However, few studies have tried to understand how public transit affects employment changes in a community while accounting for housing costs at the same time. As an update to and methodological advance on early studies, this study aims to measure light rail transit (LRT) systems’ impacts on the change in labor participation and housing affordability. This study uses the decennial Census and 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) data at the block group level and conducts propensity score matching in 12 selected LRT systems across the U.S. opened between 2000 and 2010. By comparing growth rates of the average weeks worked and the median gross rent between treatment and control groups, the results show that an introduction of an LRT station increases the average weeks worked—a measure of labor participation—while not raising the median gross rent. Further analysis also shows that the increased average weeks worked after operation of LRT systems is a result of an increase in the percentage of full-time and year-round workers and a decrease in the proportion of part-time and part-year workers. Ultimately, the findings provide planners and policymakers with a better understanding of the effects of LRT systems on the economic stability of urban communities.