Homeless Outreach: Framework, Influencers, and Best Practices

This article aims to enrich the conceptualization and implementation of community-based health outreach focused on housing stabilization and homeless prevention from a public health framework. First, it will conceptualize community-based homeless outreach. Next, it will identify and describe selected influencers of homeless outreach as well as review homeless outreach best practices. Finally, the clinical application of these theoretical approaches in a homeless outreach project with U.S. military Veterans will be highlighted. The public health prevention framework allows for a granular appreciation of housing instability to operationalize homeless outreach from primary (i.e., stably housed) to secondary (i.e., at risk of homelessness) to tertiary (i.e., homeless) prevention measures. This article will address how intersectional identities relate to stigma and shame and how the internalization of these factors may impact engagement in homeless prevention and outreach services. A review of international best practices in homeless outreach, including the impact of social identity, will be presented. Finally, this article will highlight the clinical application of critical time intervention and trauma-informed care as demonstrated in a quality improvement project that provides secondary homeless prevention outreach services to transitioning U.S. Army Veterans. This article will use commentary from outreach services clinicians, military Veteran consultants, clinical vignettes, and a literature review. Taken together, this article will advance public health practices and policies by drawing attention to biases in current homeless outreach services and by adding to the understanding of identity as related to housed status and its implication to the provision and acceptance of homeless outreach services.