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March 2019 Dynamics of homelessness in urban America
Chris Glynn, Emily B. Fox
Ann. Appl. Stat. 13(1): 573-605 (March 2019). DOI: 10.1214/18-AOAS1200

Abstract

The relationship between housing costs and homelessness has important implications for the way that city and county governments respond to increasing homeless populations. Though many analyses in the public policy literature have examined inter-community variation in homelessness rates to identify causal mechanisms of homelessness [J. Urban Aff. 35 (2013) 607–625; J. Urban Aff. 25 (2003) 335–356; Am. J. Publ. Health 103 (2013) S340–S347], few studies have examined time-varying homeless counts within the same community [J. Mod. Appl. Stat. Methods 15 (2016) 15]. To examine trends in homeless population counts in the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, we develop a dynamic Bayesian hierarchical model for time-varying homeless count data. Particular care is given to modeling uncertainty in the homeless count generating and measurement processes, and a critical distinction is made between the counted number of homeless and the true size of the homeless population. For each metro under study, we investigate the relationship between increases in the Zillow Rent Index and increases in the homeless population. Sensitivity of inference to potential improvements in the accuracy of point-in-time counts is explored, and evidence is presented that the inferred increase in the rate of homelessness from 2011–2016 depends on prior beliefs about the accuracy of homeless counts. A main finding of the study is that the relationship between homelessness and rental costs is strongest in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

Citation

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Chris Glynn. Emily B. Fox. "Dynamics of homelessness in urban America." Ann. Appl. Stat. 13 (1) 573 - 605, March 2019. https://doi.org/10.1214/18-AOAS1200

Information

Received: 1 November 2017; Revised: 1 May 2018; Published: March 2019
First available in Project Euclid: 10 April 2019

zbMATH: 07057440
MathSciNet: MR3937441
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1214/18-AOAS1200

Keywords: Homelessness , housing costs , missing data , State-space

Rights: Copyright © 2019 Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Vol.13 • No. 1 • March 2019
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