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End Homelessness

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Gerontological Social Work and the Grand Challenges

Abstract

Each year, nearly 1.5 million people in the United States experience homelessness, at least a third of whom are over the age of 50 (Henry et al., The 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Part 2: Estimates of homelessness in the United States. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC, 2017). By 2030, the number of adults ages 65 and over experiencing homelessness is expected to triple (Culhane et al., The emerging crisis in aging homelessness: Could housing solutions be funded by avoidance of excess shelter, hospital, and nursing homes? Retrieved from https://www.aisp.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Emerging-Crisis-of-Aged-Homelessness-1.pdf, 2019). Evidence suggests that older adults experiencing homelessness have the physical and mental indicators of aging 10–20 years earlier than the general population (Cohen, Gerontologist 39(1):5–14, 1999) and experience premature mortality due to age-related chronic conditions (Baggett et al., JAMA Intern Med 173(3):189–195, 2013). This chapter will focus on the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness which seeks to address the persistent problem of homelessness and build on the evidence supporting housing-based interventions by expanding available housing resources, ensuring evidence-based psychosocial support to accompany housing, and developing and evaluating new housing-based interventions for specific populations, including older adults and elders.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Urban Institute and School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA

    M. Lori Thomas

  2. School of Social Work, Spalding University, Louisville, KY, USA

    Laneshia Conner

  3. School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Othelia Lee & Cheryl Waites Spellman

Authors
  1. M. Lori Thomas
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  2. Laneshia Conner
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  3. Othelia Lee
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  4. Cheryl Waites Spellman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheryl Waites Spellman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Sara Sanders

  2. School of Social Work, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Stacey R. Kolomer

  3. School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Cheryl Waites Spellman

  4. School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Victoria M. Rizzo

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Thomas, M.L., Conner, L., Lee, O., Spellman, C.W. (2019). End Homelessness. In: Sanders, S., Kolomer, S., Waites Spellman, C., Rizzo, V. (eds) Gerontological Social Work and the Grand Challenges. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26334-8_6

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