In this article, Matthew Doherty, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness discusses the 2016 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, Part 2. With Part 1 of the 2017 report recently released, the data in this report, also recently released, gives critical information around the scale of homelessness in the U.S. This summary includes an overview of the report with analysis.

This report from MDRC, funded through OPRE, is a case study of low-income job seekers in San Francisco. The report shares findings and results from an evaluation of the STEP Forward program, which offers interviews with private sector employers at job fairs. It also offers subsidies for employers who use the program. Among other findings, the results indicated that program participants were more likely to be employed in higher quality and higher paying jobs than the control group.

In this conceptual framework and literature review, completed in partnership with OPRE and the Urban Institute, research on racial and ethnic differences and disparities are synthetized with the service delivery of six ACF programs, including TANF, Child Support, Child Care and Developmental Fund, Head Start, and the Family and Youth Service Bureau programs for runaway and homeless youth. The findings highlight the large body of work on racial and ethnic differences in access, services, and treatment.

This article looks at GIS, which is a powerful software tool that maps communities and can be helpful in examining racial and economic disparities in communities, and how it could assist in mapping homelessness assistance. GIS is easy to use and can incorporate data on a variety of variables from multiple sources. For example, it can overlay permanent housing destination on top of housing data quality to see if there are racial inequalities at play.

ETA is excited to announce the launch of a national cohort of states focusing on partnership of WIOA Titles 1 & 3, TANF Employment & Training and SNAP Employment & Training agencies and programs. This is a prestigious opportunity to work with your peers from across the country in an organized setting to tackle the challenges faced by states in leveraging funding and resources and integrating services—and explore models to develop an action plan to help advance your goals. Both states that consider themselves “leaders” and “learners” are encouraged to apply! This will be a highly engaging, peer learning cohort.

For more information, to request and submit applications, please contact cohorts@mahernet.com. Applications due by January 22, 2018.

This information sheet from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness examines rental market affordability as an indicator of the risk of homelessness in a community. Rental markets are key to preventing and ending homelessness, and this report also shares national data examining metropolitan, suburban, and urban area’s rental markets and their homelessness rates.

This report, provided to Congress annually from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), comes in two parts. The first, highlighted here, gives a snapshot of homelessness on a single night; these counts then serve as a baseline. The report also looks at youth under 25, veterans, and patterns in homeless populations.

This article, published in the IZA Journal of Labor Policy, highlights the prevalence of workplace accommodations and how they reduce employment barriers and increase access for people with disabilities. The article finds that people with disabilities that are not working cite employment barriers that could be addressed by accommodations. Additionally, people with poorer health are less likely to get needed accommodations in the workplace. Most importantly, the article highlights that accommodations are positively correlated with continued employment.

This research/policy brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty discusses the decline of prime-age men working or actively looking for work. It summarized how demographic and health shifts have contributed to labor force participation, and that reversing the trend could have significant impact on men’s well-being individually and economic growth broadly.

This report, from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, examines a study of “gig work” that included 25 workforce experts from the U.S. and builds on research done in the United Kingdom. Gig work is rising among low-skilled workers, and with it are challenges associated with not having steady hours and income. This report discusses findings and possibilities for workforce bodies to research and assist as the market changes.