This April the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy focused on family homelessness in their recent Social Policy Trends (SPT) publication. Written by Dr. Ron Kneebone the report features data provided by Inn from the Cold.
Publications like the SPT are critical to organizations like Inn from the Cold, and help bring public awareness to family homelessness and the need for further and targeted funding and solutions to help break the cycle of homelessness.
Some highlights from the report include:
- Prioritizing prevention and diversion throughout the cycle of homelessness is critical to minimize trauma and reduce the societal cost.
- In order to break the cycle of family homelessness we need to break the link of experiencing homelessness as a child.
- Family homelessness is complex and families are diverse with unique needs and face a range of physical, emotional and social challenges.
Our Manager, Reporting & Evaluation, David Sandoz tells us that “Effective policy decisions require quality data. There is a significant lack of data and research specifically focused on family homelessness across the sector.” While Inn from the Cold has a robust data, research and evaluation program, there is always room for improvement and David highlights that “Increasing the capacity of data collection for agencies that support and work with families experiencing homelessness is critical to informing public policy decisions.”
When Inn from the Cold moves into our new building in the fall of 2022, our expanded integrated service delivery model will allow us to offer a full continuum of care. This new model also presents an opportunity for us to evolve our data collection to better understand the barriers, needs and outcomes of families experiencing homelessness.
You can read the report in full here.
