Implementation of Guidelines for Research Partnerships with Persons with Lived Experience of Homelessness in the Salt Lake Valley

 

Project Description:

The broad purpose of this project is to create more effective and lasting solutions to homelessness, which is rising in the United States. In 2024, 771,480 people were identified to be experiencing homelessness on a single night (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2024), though this metric is acknowledged as an undercount of the true numbers. Inadequate housing supply, low wages, persistent poverty, inaccessible healthcare, lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, punitive and uneven policing, racial discrimination, and basic socioeconomic inequality are among the leading contributors to homelessness. And, yet experiences of homelessness are often blamed on individuals and perceived failing of individuals, which perpetuates negative perceptions of homelessness and those who are affected by this preventable social problem. Effectively addressing homelessness requires contributions from healthcare, urban planning, social work, and other civic, nonprofit, and business communities, but also requires justice-focused engagement from those who are or have directly experienced homelessness (Campbell et al., 2021; Canham et al., 2022; Westbrook & Robinson, 2021). Without the meaningful inclusion of individuals with lived expertise of homelessness in relevant research, implementation researchers and policymakers risk forcing solutions that are misaligned with on-the-ground efficacy and, further, reifying social exclusion and oppression against those who are unhoused (Norman & Pauly, 2013).

 

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For more information, contact danielle.littman@utah.edu

 

 

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