What social science tells us about homelessness and urban encampments

“While not all individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness reside in encampments, encampments have really become emblematic of the rise of unsheltered homelessness in the United States. In particular, as the number of unsheltered individuals continues to increase, the problem is most acute in major cities on the West Coast and in the markets that have seen major spikes in housing prices. However, now you see that this issue is even become prevalent in rural areas and cities that we’ve traditionally thought of as affordable.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of urban and regional planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University Grab This Quote

“Homelessness is increasing. The most recent Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress said that there was a 10% increase from 2022 to 2023. Most of that is in encampments.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University Grab This Quote

“The first thing to know about people living in urban encampments is that the rate of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness—or sleeping in encampments—has increased substantially in recent years and actually represents now 40% of the total proportion of people experiencing homelessness in the United States. This is a 20% increase from 2007 when the Department of Housing and Urban Development started collecting this data. And we’ve actually seen about a 10% jump over the last few years related specifically to the coronavirus pandemic. We also know that people experiencing unsheltered homelessness or living in encampments are mostly individuals, and the majority of them experience physical and mental health conditions, which means that they have a lot of very serious adverse health challenges.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Charley Willison, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A.
Assistant professor of public and ecosystem health, Cornell University Grab This Quote

“So research indicates that public perceptions of urban encampments are generally negative. So with encampments being viewed as problematic by local residents and businesses, the perception often leads to support of policies that criminalize homelessness, despite evidence that such policies do not effectively address the root causes of homelessness or reduce its prevalence. So these perceptions are often influenced by concerns over safety and the visibility of homelessness. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that social science research with unhoused communities has consistently shown that punitive approaches to homelessness only exacerbates their vulnerability and entrenches them deeper into cycles of poverty and marginalization.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of urban and regional planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University Grab This Quote

“So people who experience homelessness are the most stigmatized group in society, and other people who are lucky enough to have housing get upset when they see their fellow citizens suffering in public. They don’t like to pick their way around their fellow citizens on the street, and they get angry often at the people who experience homelessness rather than the circumstances that force them to be on the streets.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University Grab This Quote

“Broadly, research shows that public perceptions of urban encampments are generally negative. This is something that we’ve seen historically over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries with regards to—people experiencing homelessness are generally very negatively socially constructed. We also know that people generally think of people who are sleeping outside as an individual choice, which is actually not true. This is a result of structural challenges, like inability to afford housing. However, some new research out of California has actually shown that exposure to encampments may make people more likely to be supportive of interventions that successfully reduce homelessness and end unsheltered homelessness, like evidence based supportive housing policy.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Charley Willison, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A.
Assistant professor of public and ecosystem health, Cornell University Grab This Quote

“Individuals may find it less stressful to remain in a more controlled and familiar outdoor setting. Shelters may have restrictive rules, such as curfews, and may not accommodate individuals’ specific circumstances, such as having a partner or a pet or needing to store personal belongings. In addition, some shelters may require participation in religious services and other activities, which may not align with individual’s beliefs or needs, or even accept their identity. So for example, LGBTQIA folks are not welcome in these shelters, and so they feel very unsafe in those spaces or may not even be able to disclose their identity while being there.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of urban and regional planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University Grab This Quote

“It’s a myth that people choose to be homeless. It depends on what else is on offer. So if what is on offer is a congregate space where you can’t stay with your loved ones, where you can’t bring your beloved pet, where you can’t bring your belongings, where you have to leave in the morning, where there may be a curfew that stops you from going to your job in the evening, people will choose, under those circumstances to stay outside. But if what’s on offer is an apartment with a closed door—a place of your own, even a room—where you can keep your belongings, where you can stay with the people that you love, most folks who are in encampments will jump at that chance.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University Grab This Quote

“There are many reasons why people who are living in encampments may not seek out other forms of shelter. This includes violence, theft, and other unfortunate circumstances that often occur in shelter locations. This also includes long histories of lack of trust within in the inability to access shelter or long-term supportive housing services. The durations of homelessness make people less likely to trust the systems. And then finally, people experiencing homelessness—especially experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations—are much more likely to have substance use disorders, which are generally prohibited for—substance use is generally prohibited in sheltered locations, which means that this is a huge barrier and a primary form of exclusion to accessing necessary sheltered resources for people living in encampments.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Charley Willison, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A.
Assistant professor of public and ecosystem health, Cornell University Grab This Quote

“While the research indicates that there are some associations between homeless encampments and increased visibility of crime, drug abuse, and communicable disease, the real issue causing these situations is not the encampment. It’s the lack of stable housing and support services for the community. And so the enforcement of anti-homeless laws can contribute to increased victimization and crime within encampments by disrupting the established security and social support services system. Forced relocation can really hinder access to things like health care and sanitation, contributing to the spread of communicable disease, for example.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of urban and regional planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University Grab This Quote

“It is true that people who experience homelessness have higher levels of substance abuse than other people in the population, but most people who abuse substances don’t end up homeless. People end up homeless because they can’t afford the rent. And it’s also a myth that people who experience homelessness commit a lot of crimes. They’re more likely to be the victims of crimes than to be the perpetrators.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University Grab This Quote

“People experiencing unsheltered homelessness or living in encampments disproportionately are criminalized for quality-of-life crimes related to the realities of homelessness, such as sleeping in public or eating in public, which is the primary question at the heart of Grants Pass. People experiencing unsheltered homelessness also have very high rates of substance use disorders, which is a direct result of coping with the trauma of experiencing homelessness. We also know that encampments are associated with very high rates of communicable diseases that housed populations do not face, including tuberculosis, hepatitis, and HIV.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Charley Willison, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A.
Assistant professor of public and ecosystem health, Cornell University Grab This Quote

“When local governments clear out encampments, the displaced individuals often end up moving to other nearby public spaces, because we don’t have housing for them, and we don’t have shelter oftentimes either. And so this leads to a cycle of relocation without resolving the underlying issues again. So this process is known as spatial churn. And it results in people frequently moving between different areas while remaining homeless. And so this displacement forces individuals to move to new, often more hazardous locations than where they started. And these areas pose great risks for traffic accidents, environmental hazards—and expose them to the elements, which as climate change gets worse, also becomes a significant issue in the Southwest, for example, with heat exposure, and areas where we have more flooding or hurricanes that can be a real problem.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of urban and regional planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University Grab This Quote

“When governments clear out encampments, people simply move elsewhere. It’s a myth that helps to connect people to services. You can connect people to services while they’re still in encampments. You can bring them into housing and connect them to services there. But if you simply clear an encampment, you push people down the block, two blocks down to some slightly less visible place—and often a more dangerous place for them to live. At the same time, you probably separate people from their belongings. People lose access to the medicines they have, to their documents, like a birth certificate that might help them to access services.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University Grab This Quote

“When governments clear out encampments, people who are living there are generally either arrested or are forcibly removed to other locations. So encampment clearances actually result in cycles of homelessness that do not actually end homelessness—and also result in property confiscation, including of essential documents that can help people find housing, medications, things like this. So encampment clearances are very disruptive and very harmful to people experiencing homelessness and do not reduce homelessness in any way.” (Posted June 10, 2024 | Download Video)

Charley Willison, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A.
Assistant professor of public and ecosystem health, Cornell University Grab This Quote