Equitable Pathways to Housing is a multi-method collaborative research project aiming to better understand pathways from unsheltered homelessness to housing that are fair, fast, and long-term.
In the Fall of 2023, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust coordinated community partners to secure an increased supply of housing vouchers, funding for specialized outreach, and technical assistance to address unsheltered homelessness from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. These resources have been used to coordinate a housing first approach that emphasizes placing people in housing quickly and providing them with supportive services. Our study examines the ways these concerted efforts help create pathways out of unsheltered homelessness into housing that are equitable, expedient, and durable. It has been funded by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and was conducted in collaboration with the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and multiple community based organizations.
Equitable Pathways to Housing includes three primary components: observation and interviews with street outreach teams and their clients; a PhotoVoice project in which people moving from unsheltered homelessness to housing document their experiences; and analysis of Homeless Management Information System data.
The project is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Matthew D. Marr, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology at Florida International University (FIU) and Co-PI Qing Lai, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology at FIU. Research collaborators include Melissa Hurtado Nuez, MA, Rice University Sociology; Sebastian Ballestas Buelvas, MA, FIU Global & Sociocultural Studies; Trey Santorine, MA, University of Miami Sociology; Ana Chamorro, FIU Global & Sociocultural Studies; Kevin Kilcoyne, FIU Global & Sociocultural Studies; Beverly Muzuii, FIU Global & Sociocultural Studies; Melissa Boissiere, MA, FIU Politics and International Relations; Jack Vertovec, Ph.D., Behavioral Science Research Institute; Joshua Evans, Behavioral Science Research Institute; Gary Allen, The HeArt Room; and Natalia da Silva, Ph.D., Homer and Dolly Hand Art Center, Stetson University.