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The cardboard signs held by a man or woman as they 
stand on the side of the street often read "Hungry, please 
help;” “Veteran"; "Homeless-will work." Lining a  
sidewalk in a major city, sometimes covering blocks,  
are tents holding valued  possessions of the  
residents. Across the nation and around the world  
millions of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, 
are living through unplanned homelessness and unshel-
tered conditions. At times, their lives in these settings 
are endured for a short term, but for far too many the 
time goes on for months, turning into years. 

In the spirit of recognizing the broad field of housing 
and the unhoused, sheltering and the unsheltered; 
funding mechanisms for residences; biases and preju-
dices against the Other;  policies and regulations,  this 
issue of ENGAGE! will be the first of two.  Our intent 
is to raise the voices of social workers and students; of 
administrators and the challenges they face in providing 
programs. Naming some of the critical failings of the 
largest building sector of the U.S., home construction, 
the contributors to this issue present extant data-filled 
reports; share personal narratives; use quantitative and 
qualitative methods; reflect on city, state, and national 
trends.

Structural factors leading to inaccessibility and discrim-
ination confronted by  gender-expansive people are 
described by Daniel Soucy. After describing the gaps in 
emergency housing services Soucy draws our attention 
to the experiences of LGBTQ+ gender-expansive youth 
and the damaging effects of harassment, discrimination, 
and bullying they experience. 

Caitlin Mello examines the policies affecting social 
work licensure and the effects of the shortage of social 
workers on homelessness. The brief proposes the ex-
pansion of state-level legislation; the possible elimina-
tion of a social work licensure exam; and the expansion 
of licensing to non-degree holders. One idea is that the 
workforce supporting homelessness services can be 
changed to reflect the population being served.

Interviewed for this issue, Mary Provence shares how, 
at a very early age, the ethic of caring and the desire 

W H E N  C A R I N G  J U S T 
D O E S N ' T  C U T  I T

to become a social worker and researcher was developed 
through family travels; unsolicited reading material about 
her future career, and interacting with community-based 
organizations. She tells of the many barriers blocking and 
preventing much needed support structures for unsheltered 
people. Her lived experiences provide insight into what 
advocates can do to humanize agencies. 

In collaboration with a community based, non-profit 
organization working to address the issues and context of 
homelessness in a college town,   Josie McQuillan and 
Rachel Downey shed light on the specific barriers that pre-
vent unsheltered individuals from securing stable housing. 
The authors narrow their focus to  the lives of “Hoosiers” 
in Bloomington,  Indiana. 

In the student voices section, “Speaking Up and Speaking 
Out,” H. Jad Rea a MLIS student in the IU Luddy School, 
soundly pronounces homelessness as ‘systemic cruelty’ 
while offering some approaches that make a difference 
in the lives of unsheltered million. In addition, Mahasin 
Ameen and H. Rhea Jad contribute an extensive compila-
tion of homelessness and housing organizational profiles 
to serve as accessible resources for readers. 

Many resources are available throughout this issue. For 
example, below are links to a newly launched data base 
(December 2023) produced by SAVI a research center 
of the Polis Center at Indiana University. The database 
provides useful information about the ongoing efforts to 
address the challenges of evictions, high costs of housing, 
policies, and practices of realtors. The causes of evictions 
may best be described, according to the web site, as a 
‘synergy’ of rising rent costs, poverty and low wages,  
inflation, drug and mental health challenges, citizens living 
paycheck to paycheck, common life occurrences like un-
expected bills and the reduction of work hours. The dash-
board features many resources for tenants, researchers, and 
stakeholders. “The goal of the tool is to raise awareness 
of evictions in Indiana and provide a resource to empower 
communities to instill change; users can explore trends of 
evictions and foreclosures; examine important associations 
between socioeconomic variables and evictions data; and 
take the opportunity to provide anonymous stories of their 

ENGAGE!  |  h o m e l e s s n e s s  &  h o u s i n g  i n s ec u r i t y 4



E D I T O R I A L

eviction experience on a qualitative data page.” Empow-
ering Indiana Communities with Evictions & Foreclosure 
Data - SAVI (https://www.savi.org/empowering-indi-
ana-communitieswith-evictions-foreclosure-data/)

Another resource for information is the Melville Trust. For 
instance, researchers at the Trust state there is evidence 
that homelessness impacts some communities more than 
others. Black Americans make up 13% of the US popu-
lation but account for 40% of all people living without 
a home. Landlords file evictions against Black renters at 
nearly double the rate of White renters. “Homelessness is 
the result of economic, social, justice and housing systems 
that make quality housing a luxury, force chronically ill 
neighbors to sleep on sidewalks, and allow employers to 
pay wages that do not cover basic needs. The racial dispar-
ities we see in homelessness and housing instability are a 
result of deeply rooted inequities in systems like housing, 
jobs, and healthcare, which create multiple barriers for 
Black, Indigenous, and Latino/a/x people to obtain quality 
education, maintain their health, make a living wage, and 
secure a decent home.” The Issues - Data and Insights 
- Melville Charitable Trust (https://melvilletrust.org/our-
work/the-issues/)

The second issue of ENGAGE! will bridge these ideas to 
ones concerned with visioning the future. This country, 
its leaders in government and private industry,  is not pre-
pared to provide caring support, and housing for its aging, 
over 70 population as reported by the Harvard Joint Center 
for Housing Studies, “Over the next 10 years, the US 
population over the age of 75 will increase by 45%, from 
17 million to nearly 25 million. The growth is widespread, 
across urban, suburban, and rural communities, and the 
sharpest among baby boomers who will begin entering 
their 80s in this decade.” Harvard Joint Center for Housing 
Studies | Joint Center for Housing Studies (https://www.
jchs.harvard.edu/) The issues are compounded according 
to the report, by widening income gaps, inequalities by 
race and ethnicity, home equity, and housing ownership 
wealth. “Older renter households are more likely to be 
headed by people of color.”  Housing America's Older 
Adults 2023 (https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/
files/reports/files/Harvard_JCHS_Housing_Ameri-
cas_Older_Adults_2023.pdf). Who are the designers and 
planners generating creating responses to climate change 

that impact not only plants and animals but the homeless? 
And how will new ideas spark activism to address the state 
of housing in the future, a future that regards unsheltered 
refugees from famine and war? 

The National Alliance to End Homelessness conducted 
a nationwide survey of homeless services employees, to 
learn about agency staffing challenges; low salaries and 
financial difficulties; the effects on service delivery and 
the need for far more resources  to meet the needs of all 
people experiencing homelessness.Working-in-Homeless-
Services-A-Survey-of-the-Field_12-5-23_FINAL.pdf 
(https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/
Working-in-Homeless-Services-A-Survey-of-the-
Field_12-5-23_FINAL.pdf). Moving forward,  the plan for 
the second volume of ENGAGE! addressing homelessness 
is to reflect community engaged and community based 
participatory research with leaders of the movement for 
equity and change.   

5 VO L .  5,  I S S U E  2




