Homeless young adults represent a failure of the U.S. social services system to prevent new generations of homeless people. However, several organizations are working in concert with communities and governments to combat this problem through transitional housing programs that target young adults ages 18 to 24. Many of these programs mirror the new urban development trend of mixed-income housing, and place transitional houses inside stable neighborhoods that are either affluent or mixed-income themselves. While these programs represent monumental commitments in terms of resources, they also represent hope for many young adults. The sense of community these young-adult residents feel toward their neighborhoods and programs have lasting effects on the residents’ abilities to find normalcy inside the American culture through access to education, safety, and employment. This study examines the YMCA Young Adult Services Program (serving the greater Seattle area) for transitional housing, exploring how the program works and what is residents’ psychological sense of community.

Chronic homelessness is a highly complex social problem of national importance. The problem has elicited a variety of societal and public policy responses over the years, concomitant with fluctuations in the economy and changes in the demographics of and attitudes toward poor and disenfranchised citizens. In recent decades, federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the philanthropic community have worked hard to develop and implement programs to solve the challenges of homelessness, and progress has been made. However, much more remains to be done. Importantly, the results of various efforts, and especially the efforts to reduce homelessness among veterans in recent years, have shown that the problem of homelessness can be successfully addressed. Although a number of programs have been developed to meet the needs of persons experiencing homelessness, this report focuses on one particular type of intervention: permanent supportive housing (PSH). Permanent Supportive Housing focuses on the impact of PSH on health care outcomes and its cost-effectiveness. The report also addresses policy and program barriers that affect the ability to bring the PSH and other housing models to scale to address housing and health care needs.

This document presents the Queer Students of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation's (QSAPP) research into housing for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness in New York City. Based at Columbia GSAPP, QSAPP's interdisciplinary project looks at this issue from the various disciplines of the built environment represented at the school: architecture, real estate, planning, and preservation. The book draws on a range of sources--including data from government and social service organizations, operating models of existing organizations in New York, and interviews with service providers and experts in the field--and perspectives in sociology, public health, and advocacy. Funding is often cited as one of the biggest barriers to solving this housing crisis, but an analysis of funding models and strategies does not currently exist. In addition, housing is a design problem but there are no published reports that analyze LGBTQ youth housing from a spatial perspective. QSAPP hopes that by visualizing this issue and highlighting ways in which these shelters fit into specific planning and real estate systems in the city, we can further shed light on the specific needs of LGBTQ youth and help advise on ways forward with these concerns in mind.

This book provides a unique portrayal of Housing First as a 'paradigm shift' in homeless services. Since 1992, this approach has spread nationally and internationally, changing systems and reversing the usual continuum of care. The success of Housing First has few parallels in social and human services.

In the context of the ongoing destandardization of young people's lives, this book explores changing patterns of household formation amongst contemporary 20-somethings and the implications of these changes for the ways in which they relate to friends, parents and partners. The book points to the growing polarization between the experiences of graduates and non-graduates, and highlights changing expectations and attitudes towards intimacy and 'settling down' amongst these groups.

This smart, provocative look at how the American Dream of single-family homes, white picket fences, and two-car garages became a lonely, overpriced nightmare explores how new trends in housing can help us live better. Over the past century, American demographics and social norms have shifted dramatically. More people are living alone, marrying later in life, and having smaller families. At the same time, their lifestyles are changing, whether by choice or by force, to become more virtual, more mobile, and less stable. But despite the ways that today's America is different and more diverse, housing still looks stuck in the 1950s. In Brave New Home, Diana Lind shows why a country full of single-family houses is bad for us and our planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. Lind takes readers into the homes and communities that are seeking alternatives to the American norm, from multi-generational living, in-law suites, and co-living to microapartments, tiny houses, and new rural communities. Drawing on Lind's expertise and the stories of Americans caught in or forging their own paths outside of our cookie-cutter housing trap, Brave New Home offers a diagnosis of the current American housing crisis and a radical re-imagining of future possibilities.