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| Homeless Research Institute | |
|---|---|
| Name | Homeless Research Institute |
| Formation | 2008 |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Leader title | Director |
| Leader name | Dr. Eleanor Shaw |
| Type | Nonprofit research institute |
| Fields | Homelessness, Housing Policy, Social Services, Public Health |
Homeless Research Institute is a nonprofit research organization focused on empirical studies of homelessness in the United States, housing policy, and service delivery models. Founded in 2008, it conducts quantitative and qualitative studies, publishes reports, and engages with policymakers, practitioners, and advocacy groups to inform interventions for people experiencing homelessness. The institute collaborates with a range of universities, municipal agencies, and philanthropic foundations.
The institute was established in 2008 following convenings that included representatives from United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Alliance to End Homelessness, Coalition for the Homeless (New York), King County Department of Community and Human Services, and academics from Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles. Early projects evaluated Housing First pilots originating from programs in Portland, Oregon, Houston, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah. In the 2010s it partnered with researchers from Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Michigan and University of Chicago to analyze Point-in-Time count methodologies and longitudinal data from HUD Continuum of Care systems. The institute expanded operations to include field teams in Los Angeles County, Cook County, and King County, Washington after collaborations with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. It published joint briefs with Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, RAND Corporation, and McKinsey & Company affiliates. During the COVID-19 pandemic it worked with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and municipal health departments in Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, and Boston (Massachusetts) to study shelter infection mitigation.
The institute states objectives aligned with partners such as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Open Society Foundations: improve measurement of homelessness, test scalable interventions, and translate evidence into policy tools for agencies like Department of Veterans Affairs and Social Security Administration. It aims to bridge practice and research by producing toolkits used by American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities USA, and Salvation Army (United States). Objectives include standardizing outcome metrics used by National Healthcare for the Homeless Council and informing federal rulemaking at U.S. Congress committee hearings on housing and urban affairs.
Programs span quantitative analytics, ethnography, randomized controlled trials, and implementation science. Major initiatives include comparative studies of Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Re-Housing, and Transitional Housing models across jurisdictions such as San Diego County, Maricopa County, and Philadelphia. The institute runs a Veterans program in coordination with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, an adolescent homelessness stream with The Trevor Project and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a family homelessness program with Annie E. Casey Foundation and Child Welfare League of America. It administers a data repository linked to administrative records from Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families systems for multi-sector analyses. Collaborations include methodological work with National Bureau of Economic Research, Institute for Policy Research (Northwestern), and American Institutes for Research.
The institute contributes testimony at hearings held by U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and state legislatures in California, New York (state), and Washington (state). It authors policy memos referenced by Mayor's Office of New York City, San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, and the Los Angeles Mayor's Office. Advocacy partners include National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and Equal Justice Initiative. It participates in federal rule discussions with HUD Secretary offices and provides modeling used by Congressional Budget Office analysts.
Principal funders and partners have included Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Zilber Family Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and municipal funding from City of Seattle and City of Los Angeles. Academic partnerships include University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and Brown University. International collaborations involve United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Médecins Sans Frontières, and research exchange with University of Oxford and London School of Economics. The institute also contracts with local agencies such as NYC Department of Homeless Services and Boston Housing Authority.
The institute is led by a Director supported by an Executive Director of Research, a Chief Data Officer, and program directors for Veterans, Families, Youth, and Health. Its governance board includes representatives from Harvard Kennedy School, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, American Enterprise Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and philanthropic seats from The Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. Field operations are organized into regional teams for Northeast United States, Midwest United States, Southwest United States, and Pacific Northwest, with data centers compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act standards.
The institute's work informed expansions of Housing First programs in Salt Lake City, influenced veteran homelessness initiatives used by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and contributed to revisions in HUD Continuum of Care reporting. Critics from groups including Liberty Justice Center and some municipal officials have argued that cost projections influence policy bias; scholars at University of California, Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania have debated causal interpretations of its randomized trials. Advocacy organizations such as Right to the City Alliance have challenged partnerships with certain municipal administrations, and investigative reporting in outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and ProPublica has scrutinized procurement and funding transparency. The institute has responded by publishing data dictionaries and independent replication materials with partners at Open Science Framework and Harvard Dataverse.