During its short life, affordablehousingaction.org has published 2,700 posts. The purpose of reporting this is not to puff out our chests, but to highlight a gap in our content. Since 2017 when affordablehousingaction.org started, there have been 55 posts discussing rural homelessness. That’s 2%.
Some of those posts have pointed out that homelessness is different in rural areas. There is a general consensus that rural homelessness tends to be less visible than in urban centres.
The reports in this post are both about rural homelessness. They won’t do much to budge that 2%, but they are worth knowing about. One is about the United States and the second is about England. Although the programs under study are thousands of kilometres apart, they are quite connected.
The U.S. study was funded by The Churchill Fellowship, which is UK based. The funding allowed Rory Weal to travel to the U.S. and see rural homelessness programming in action in 2018. Weal chose four states where rural homelessness had gone down: Mississippi, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. He aimed to suss out why these states had had success in managing rural homelessness.
Weal’s report identifies that service provision, politics and policy are important factors. Weal says there is a consensus among service providers and decision makers in the places he visited that homelessness is not the result of individual failings. There is also a growing consensus that a coordinated system of supports is the most effective way for people to end their homelessness.
Weal also identifies that national leadership has ensured that rural areas receive some federal funding. That allows agencies to work together and to facilitate programs to end homelessness. In some places Weal visited, Federal funding was augmented by local and state funding.
The second report acknowledges Weal’s work and takes a similar approach in England. Four locations are studied in depth: South Cambridgeshire, Herefordshire, North Yorkshire and Kent. The researchers studied the provision of homelessness services on the ground in each location. The findings are based on interviews with service providers and people with experience of homelessness. The researchers also invited rural service providers in all parts of the United Kingdom to respond to a survey.
The report about rural homelessness in England identifies good practices. It introduces readers to the challenges that face people who experience homelessness in rural areas. It includes some personal stories, which provide readers with another way to connect with the experience of homelessness in rural areas.
The researchers conclude that rural homelessness is a much bigger issue than local councils and the national government appear to think, given the level of public funding for services and housing in rural communities.
As a starting point to improve services, the authors of the England report recommend getting a better idea of how many people face homelessness, and the nature of supports in rural areas that would help them end it.
One example of an issue worthy of further study is the social assistance that is paid to young people who are not working. The benefit level is set on the assumption that beneficiaries who are single and under the age of 35 will share accommodation. In rural locations, this is rarely feasible and in itself contributes to people becoming homeless.
These reports will be of interest for anyone who is looking for information about rural homelessness. The U.S. study includes a section that compares approaches in the U.S. and the U.K. to highlight differences in service provision, a method that could be applied in other aspects of service and in other jurisdictions.
The study of rural homelessness in the U.S. is posted by the Churchill Fellowship: Out Of The Woods? Lessons From The United States On Tackling Rural Homelessness
The English study is posted on line by the University of Kent: Homelessness In The Countryside: A Hidden Crisis
