The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #56074

Anthony M Warnes, BSc, PhD, AcSS¹, Maureen Crane, RGN, RMN, MSc, PhD¹, Frances Mirabelli², Kathleen Byrne, MSRN³, Hope Watt, PhD⁴, and Robert Shea, PhD⁵. (1) Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing, University of Sheffield, UK, Community Sciences Centre, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU, United Kingdom, 0044 114 271 5773, a.warnes@shef.ac.uk, (2) Director of Services, Wintringham, 136 Mount Alexander Road, PO Box 193, Flemington, Victoria, 3031, Australia, (3) Geriatric Team Boston Medical Center, Elders Living at Home Program, Ambulatory Care Center, Mezzanine, 1 Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA 02118, (4) Director of Behavioral Health and Research, Committee to End Elder Homelessness, 1640 Washington Street, Boston, MA 021188, (5) Director, Center for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility, Pine Manor College, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

This is the final of four presentations from the comparative international study of the causes of homelessness among older people (see Abstracts 53674, 59510 and 57274). The study has been carried out by a partnership of provider organisations and researchers in Boston, Massachusetts, in England, and in Melbourne, Australia. The study's aims and design, and key findings from Boston and Melbourne are described in the previous presentations. This paper describes the findings of the comparative analyses. It examines similarities and differences in the profiles of newly homeless older people and in the causes of and pathways into homelessness. Antecedents, triggers and contributory factors to older homelessness are compared. The influences in the three study settings of the different public-sector welfare policies and services and of contrasting philanthropic or non-governmental interventions are examined. The policy and practice implications are assessed, and recommendations proposed for preventive and responsive policies and practice, with particular reference to the service response to people in housing difficulties. The study seeks evidence by which to elucidate and partially resolve the competing 'biographical' and 'structural' constructions of the causes of homelessness. Its achievement, and the potential of extensions of the approach, will be provisionally assessed. The session will comprise a short sequence of thematic presentations by partners from all three countries. The symposium will conclude with questions to a panel.

Learning Objectives:

• Attenders will acquire an understanding of the different causes or and pathways into homelessness among people aged 50 and more years in the three countries.
• More specifically, they will understand the differential contributions of state welfare support for vulnerable people (including income support and emergency housing services), and the role of housing legislation, particularly that pertaining to security of tenure and eviction.
• Attenders will also gain insights into the contrasting prevalence of different social pathologies as factors in homelessness in the three countries.

Keywords: Homelessness, International

Related Web page: www.shef.ac.uk/sisa

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.