Patterns and determinants of public shelter utilization among homeless adults in New York City and Philadelphia

Abstract

Administrative data on public shelter utilization among homeless adults from New York City (1987–1994) and Philadelphia (1991–1994) are analyzed to identify the relative proportion of shelter users by length of stay and rate of readmission, and to identify the characteristics that predict an exit from shelter. Survival analyses reveal that half of adult shelter users will stay fewer than 45 days over a two‐year period (combined stays), and that approximately one half of men and one third of women will experience a readmission within two years of the first admission. Results also document the size and relative resource consumption of a long‐term sheltered population, finding that 18.2 percent of New York shelter users stay 180 days or more in their first year, consuming 53.4 percent of the system days for first‐time shelter users. Discrete‐time logistic hazard regression analyses reveal that, in general, being older, of black race, having a substance abuse or mental health problem, or having a physical disability, significantly reduces the likelihood of exiting shelter. In both cities, people entering shelter in later years are staying longer, although individuals have shorter episodes on subsequent admissions. The implications of this study for the analysis and management of emergency shelter system utilization are discussed.

A journey home: What drives how long people are homeless?

“…Thus, the median duration of cultural homelessness is approximately four months, while the median spell of literal homelessness is around two months. In comparison, the median shelter homeless spell in New York City and Philadelphia is under a month (Culhane & Kuhn 1998;O'Flaherty 2012). Less than ten percent of literal homeless spells last more than 12 month while about 20 percent of cultural homeless spells are longer than 12 months.…”

“…Previous studies of homelessness tend to be small scale, focus on particular locations and/or demographic groups (Hall & Freeman 1989), and take a narrow view of homelessness by relying on samples of shelter users (Allgood et al 1997;Culhane & Kuhn 1998;Shinn et al 1998). As a result, the literature tells us much more about the characteristics associated with being homeless than about the amount of time people will remain without adequate housing.…”

“…2 Unfortunately, data constraints -and the inherent econometric difficulties in achieving identification -imply that those studies that do examine the dynamics of homelessness have been unable to shed light on the effect of any duration dependence (Allgood & Warren 2003;Culhane & Kuhn 1998;Piliavin et al 1993;.…”

“…While there is U.S. evidence that those with longer durations are less likely to exit homelessness (e.g. Allgood & Warren 2003;Culhane & Kuhn 1998), it is unclear whether this stems from duration dependence per se or from selection (i.e. heterogeneity) in those unobserved characteristics that predispose some people to longer durations.…”

A Journey Home: What Drives How Long People Are Homeless?

“…Interestingly U.S. studies of homelessness, many of which are based on shelter populations, often find that the duration of homelessness is significantly longer for men than for women (Piliavin et al 1993;Culhane and Kuhn 1998;Allgood and Warren 2003), but that women are more likely to return to homelessness (Piliavin et al 1996).…”