Research on Homelessness
Alongside rising housing costs and economic inequality, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area has rapidly increased in recent years. This increase in homelessness is especially visually apparent with the proliferation of tent encampments. Grounded in years of volunteer and personal experience, my newest research documents the growth of tent encampments in Oakland, California. Triangulating several data sources, I examine how physical features of urban space, neighborhood characteristics, and interventions by the City of Oakland shape the location, size, and stability of tent encampments over the past decade.
I also conduct research in partnership with local service providers. From 2018 to 2020, I was a volunteer caseworker with a disaster relief organization in Alameda county that supports tent encampment residents who experience fires. I also produced reports analyzing the organization's client data (internal use only). In 2020, I collaborated with Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento to survey 250 of their breakfast and lunch guests face-to-face. We are collaboratively producing a report and other materials for Loaves & Fishes' advocacy program.
I also conduct research in partnership with local service providers. From 2018 to 2020, I was a volunteer caseworker with a disaster relief organization in Alameda county that supports tent encampment residents who experience fires. I also produced reports analyzing the organization's client data (internal use only). In 2020, I collaborated with Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento to survey 250 of their breakfast and lunch guests face-to-face. We are collaboratively producing a report and other materials for Loaves & Fishes' advocacy program.
Ryan Finnigan. 2021. "The Growth and Shifting Spatial Distribution of Tent Encampments in Oakland, California." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 693(1): 284–300
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(pre-print PDF, including methods appendix)
Tent encampments have become an especially common form of homelessness in West Coast cities like Oakland, California, where the number of people living in tent encampments increased by 130 percent between 2017 and 2019. Relative to other experiences of homelessness, tent encampments provide residents both potential benefits and risks that depend on their location, size, and stability. Using novel data collected from Google Street Views, I document the growth and spatial dynamics of tent encampments in West and Central Oakland over the last decade. The number and size of tent encampments rapidly increased between 2014 and 2019, varying widely in their stability. City interventions like the city’s outdoor transitional housing sites displaced several large tent encampments. Combined with overall tent encampment growth, these displacements dispersed tent encampments throughout both nearby neighborhoods and other parts of the city. |
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Ryan Finnigan. 2021. "Self-Reported Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic for People Experiencing Homelessness in Sacramento, California" Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness
(open-access link) (replication package at OSF)
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely substantially compounded hardships for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to their already heightened health risks, shelter-in-place orders and recommended physical distancing have constrained available services. Though people experiencing homelessness have surely also been impacted economically, the extent of these impacts remains unclear. This study documents self-reported disease and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California. The study analyzes survey data from 198 people experiencing homelessness, collected in collaboration with a homelessness services agency in October 2020. The article contextualizes these data with comparisons to Sacramento’s point-in-time survey of homelessness and a sample of low-income housed Californians. The results suggest relatively limited exposure to COVID- 19 among people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento. Income and employment losses were more common, but still less pronounced for people experiencing homelessness than for low-income housed Californians. However, these lower economic losses mainly reflect enduring deprivation prior to the pandemic. People experiencing homelessness also received stimulus funds in the spring of 2020 at much lower rates than low-income housed Californians. Overall, the study adds to an emerging empirical literature on the diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for people experiencing homelessness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely substantially compounded hardships for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to their already heightened health risks, shelter-in-place orders and recommended physical distancing have constrained available services. Though people experiencing homelessness have surely also been impacted economically, the extent of these impacts remains unclear. This study documents self-reported disease and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California. The study analyzes survey data from 198 people experiencing homelessness, collected in collaboration with a homelessness services agency in October 2020. The article contextualizes these data with comparisons to Sacramento’s point-in-time survey of homelessness and a sample of low-income housed Californians. The results suggest relatively limited exposure to COVID- 19 among people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento. Income and employment losses were more common, but still less pronounced for people experiencing homelessness than for low-income housed Californians. However, these lower economic losses mainly reflect enduring deprivation prior to the pandemic. People experiencing homelessness also received stimulus funds in the spring of 2020 at much lower rates than low-income housed Californians. Overall, the study adds to an emerging empirical literature on the diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for people experiencing homelessness.