Research

Invisible Policymaking: The Hidden Actors Shaping Homelessness:

Numerous government agencies at all levels make public policies that are influential to the well-being of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. But, the way these decisions get made and how they’re implemented aren’t visible to the public or even other policy makers. In many cases, they are not considered part of homelessness policy at all. Think: land use policy. Or policing.

Very little is known about the types of policies that are targeted toward homelessness at the local level, how these policies are organized around different goals that may or may not work to effectively reduce homelessness, and whether these goals are carried out in implementation.

Dr. Charley E. Willison and Dr. Katherine Levine Einstein are embarking on a three-year research project, “Invisible Policymaking: The Hidden Actors Shaping Homelessness,” in conjunction with Community Solutions in order to explore these issues more fully. The project aims to identify and explain the full landscape of homelessness policy; the structure of public policy making in local responses to homelessness in both decision-making and policy implementation; and the influence of these choices on people who are unhoused.