Homelessness is a layered issue, not only limited to social justice, but also impacting architectural and urban planning concerns. Treated as an identity rather than a temporary condition, many cities fail to address the complex variety of external factors which contribute to homelessness. The result often being budget-driven shelters congregated in already resource deficient, low income areas. The misconception that homelessness only happens in a city's poorest areas is rooted in prejudice and functions to only further prevent the same types of developments seen in more desirable neighborhoods. With a specific socioeconomic climate and disparity in Orlando, Florida, Parramore presents itself as an opportune place to provide a central downtown sanctuary that additionally will provide greater access to necessary services for the adjacent neighborhoods. A study of queer theory and ergonomics were an integral part of the design process. The former primarily concerned with the development of queer spaces from illicit "underground" safe havens of refuge built out of a necessity to exist freely in space (a precursor to present-day DIY culture) to now transparent, integrated queer spaces existing almost indifferently to the naked eye. The emergent idea being that together, the community campus is intended as an accessible series of places, rather than a singularly defined one / Master of Architecture / Homelessness is a social issue which affects everyone. There is a long history of intolerance towards the homeless which is evidenced by discriminatory policies that prevent the homeless from existing in the public and/or stress a homeless individual's ability to access the necessary services needed to escape homelessness. Current housing assistance for the homeless are often limited by inconsistent access to services (e.g. healthcare, counseling, job assistance, etc.), traditional living arrangements, availability, accessibility, and budget-driven designs. Additionally, the social stigma around homelessness is counterproductive to a critically vulnerable group of people's recovery and re-assimilation into society. Supporting the development and design exploration of services such as permanent supportive housing is beneficial because it is a model focused on embedding users into the community through thoughtful and holistic design. (i.e. a housing assistance service which places chronically homeless individuals into market-rate apartments or similar residential dwelling; usually centrally located and/or connected to necessary services). Another important aspect of this thesis is exploring non-traditional sites for such projects as it is equally as important for city's to reassess the opportunity to renew areas lost to discriminatory planning. This thesis references various ideas, philosophies, and design strategies borrowed from similar vulnerable groups to establish connections and create a roadmap for how the architectural intervention will be developed for the specific user group and site context. It is my hope that this optimistic reimagining of lost spaces as sites for supportive housing and community can help redefine what and who homelessness is and shed light on how services could like moving forward into the future.

Purpose: Given that CRC Screening disparities in people experiencing homelessness has been heavily understudied, the purpose of this study is to assess how existing knowledge and access to resources about CRC screenings affect the ability to obtain CRC screenings in people experiencing homelessness in Central Florida. Methods: In March 2023, a team of researchers surveyed subjects who do not have stable housing in two Central Florida locations: a local shelter and a resource center serving the predominantly unsheltered. The survey assessed current understanding of CRC screenings and available/lacking resources necessary for completing CRC screening in this population. There was a total sample size of 75 participants, with 36 participants from the shelter and 39 from the service center location. Our inclusion criteria included those who are undomiciled, age 45 and over who speak Spanish or English. Results: The results indicate that there is a statistical difference between those who are screened and not screened when assessing provider counseling (p<0.001), awareness of how to get screened (p<0.001) and access to the same medical provider every visit (p=0.0389). In regard to receipt of CRC screening, there were no statistically significant results when assessing demographics and other resource-related factors. Conclusion: Because data was collected in locations that provided resources, this study may not be representative of all undomiciled individuals in Florida, especially in rural areas. Our results imply a need for provider counseling, patient education and access to a primary care provider. More research needs to be conducted from the physician perspective to understand the context of existing barriers to CRC screening.

Thesis advisor: V. Paul Poteat / Homelessness is an ever expanding and complex phenomena that adversely affects the well-being of individuals and society. Research suggests the experience of homelessness and its correlates, including discrimination, are especially detrimental to mental health. However, the prevalence of discrimination endured by the Unhoused Community is unclear. There is also a dearth of research concerning factors that may promote resilience in the face of these stressors. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to determine the extent of discrimination experienced by Persons without Homes and assess the potential of spirituality to buffer the association between discrimination and mental health. A quantitative analysis of responses from 206 participants revealed the correlational and moderational effect of various aspects of spirituality on discrimination and its association with self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. As hypothesized, higher levels of discrimination were significantly correlated with lower levels of self-esteem, greater levels of anxiety, and more depressive symptomatology among Persons without Homes. In addition, all five aspects of spirituality measured (spiritual belief, private spiritual behavior, public spiritual behavior, spiritual social support, and daily spiritual experiences) had a significant moderating effect on the adverse association of discrimination on depression. Two aspects of spirituality (spiritual belief and public spiritual behavior) also significantly moderated the negative association of discrimination on self-esteem. In summary, various aspects of spirituality attenuated the adverse association between discrimination and mental health. These findings have multiple implications for future policy, research, clinical work, social service delivery, and pastoral care. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

For fragile families, external shocks to parents such as incarceration, illness, abuse, death, and divorce can be enough to push the entire family into homelessness. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I find statistically significant evidence that paternal incarceration, spousal abuse, and parental illness all increase the probability of childhood homelessness. However, I am unable to find a significant correlation between divorce and child homelessness. These findings imply large external shocks to the father, as well as both major external shocks and daily life habits such as drug abuse in the mother, can increase a child’s chance of homelessness. Additionally, I find that these results have a greater effect when they happen earlier in the child’s life, suggesting that policy directed at supporting fragile families with incarcerated fathers, abused mothers, and sick parents would be effective for decreasing childhood homelessness in the United States.

This project examines the effects of the homeless body and the threat of homelessness on constructing a national imaginary that relies on the trope of locatability for recognition as a citizen-subject. The thesis argues that homelessness, the oft-figured specter of public space, functions as bodies that are “pushed out” as citizen-subjects due to their inability maintain both discursive and material location. I argue that figures of “home” rely on the ever-present threat of dislocation to maintain a privileged position as the location of the consuming citizen-subject. That is, the presence of the dislocated homeless body haunts the discursive and material construction of home and its inhabitants. Homeless then becomes the uncanny inverse of home, functioning as an abjection that reifies home “place” as an arbiter of recognition in a neoliberal national imaginary. The chapters proceed to examine what some consider homeless “homes,” focusing on the reduction of the homeless condition to a place of inhabitance, or the lack thereof. This attempt to locate the homeless body becomes a symptom of the desire for recognition as a placed body. The thesis ends on a note of political possibility, figuring the uncanny as a rupture that evacuates language of signification and opens up space for a form of recognition without an over-determined identity.

Individuals who experience homelessness are exposed to stressors that have the potential to precipitate mental and physical health complications that can present serious threats to multiple areas of these individuals' lives. Although the path to becoming and remaining homeless is different for every individual, there may be some commonality specific to homelessness that makes certain individuals who experience homelessness more vulnerable than other individuals to the expression and potentially devastating course of psychopathology. Guided by the diathesis-stress model, the intent of this study is to explore the question, following a first hospitalization for mental illness ("schizophrenia spectrum disorder" or "other diagnosis"), what are the associations of homelessness with psychiatric symptom severity and how do risk factors of family history of mental illness, low intelligence, housing independence, hopelessness, and lack of social support interact with homelessness? To answer this question, a secondary analysis was performed on data from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a longitudinal study that sought to investigate the course of schizophrenia in an epidemiologic sample of first-admission patients. A sub-sample of 548 cases taken from the parent study were further subdivided into two cohorts; individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and those diagnosed with non-schizophrenia mental illness. A multilevel analysis was conducted for four different outcome variables, measuring psychotic, disorganized, and depressive symptoms as well as global functioning, in order to determine whether or not there is a significant association between homelessness and the severity of psychiatric symptomatology. Through the continued use of multilevel analytic models and interaction plots, significant confounding variables were examined to determine whether or not they facilitated interactions with homelessness. Homelessness was found to produce a small, but significant effect, for both cohorts across all four outcome variables. Additionally, applied to different outcome variables, the five confounding variables were also found to have small-to-medium-sized, significant interactions with homelessness. The results of this study provide additional statistical support to other studies looking at similar populations.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-121).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 328-347).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Population Health, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-266).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2008. / Title from web page (viewed on Dec. 23, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.