Homelessness prevention for women and children who have experienced domestic and family violence: innovations in policy and practice
AHURI Positioning Paper 140, Swinburne-Monash Research Centre, June 2011
The purpose of this research project is to explore the value and challenges of innovative staying at home homelessness prevention measures, such as Staying Home Leaving Violence schemes in Australia, and Sanctuary schemes in England and Wales.
Staying Home Leaving Violence and Sanctuary schemes are designed to combine judicial, housing and welfare measures in a coordinated manner in order to enable women and children to remain in their homes safely, and for the perpetrator to be removed and deterred from returning.
This paper is the first stage of the research project and provides a desk-based review of existing relevant literature. It investigates and assesses innovations in policy and practice to prevent homelessness among women and children who have experienced domestic and family violence.
A prevention-centered approach to homelessness assistance: a paradigm shift?
Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, and Thomas Byrne. University of Pennsylvania. May 2011
This paper explores the conceptual underpinnings of successful prevention initiatives and reviews practice-based evidence from several successful prevention-oriented approaches to homelessness in the United States and Europe. The authors (Dennis Culhane, Stephen Metraux and Thomas Byrne) then outline a conceptual framework for a transformation of homeless assistance towards prevention-oriented approaches, with a discussion of relevant issues of program design and practice, data collection standards, and program performance monitoring and evaluation.