This indepth study of a cohort of chronically homeless street dwellers at risk of death will assess the effectiveness of medical and substance abuse services in connecting this group to the local homeless Continuum of Care (CoC) and permanent housing. (More)

In this dissertation I explore the idea of "design" as a mechanism of aesthetic classification and control - what I call aesthetic expertise. This is to understand design not solely in terms of specialized knowledge, skill, or procedures, but as constituting relationships of power through claims to aesthetic or subjective authority. For this analysis I draw upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted among urban design faculty engaged in university-community partnerships. (More)

In recent years, communities around the United States have been faced with an obdurate problem of rising homelessness, dwindling resources, and increasing numbers of tent cities within municipal limits. In this moment of U.S. upheaval, we have a chance to rethink what home means and how local policies can better meet people’s needs of home, particularly for those considered homeless. A common thread unites all community conflicts and decisions about shelters, transitional centers, tent cities, and other institutionally created housing for the homeless—core beliefs about what “home” and “homelessness” mean. How we think about “home” and what that means for housing impacts how people without access to those dominant types of housing are conceptualized. National approaches to home have implications for all citizens, but particularly for those who find themselves unable to afford the types of accommodations associated with “home.” (More)

Scholars attest to the expanded role of the criminal justice system in the lives of the urban poor. Staggering incarceration rates coupled with recidivism approaching 70 percent, nearly 700,000 ex-offenders annually released from prisons, and millions more from jails across the country, highlight the importance of prisoner reentry for urban communities. These concerns are especially salient in Illinois, a leader in sentencing disparity and recidivism, where 80 percent of arrests were drug related and, in Cook County, the most populous and diverse region in the state, African Americans represent 80 percent of all felony convictions. Finally, the ratio of persons incarcerated to those released is 1:1, with slightly more inmates discharged than admitted, the majority returning to just 7 of 77 Chicago community areas. (More)

According to recent estimates, there are more than 75,000 homeless elders in the United States today (Cunningham and Henry, 2007). Such numbers represent the failures of the aging and homeless service systems to meet the needs of the most vulnerable older adults in our communities. Further, the housing and aging literatures have paid little attention to elder homelessness (Gonyea et al., 2010). This study addresses a critical gap by bringing forth the voices of those on the frontlines to explore how older adults experiencing homelessness and their outreach workers define and mitigate problems associated with urban elder homelessness. (More)

This doctoral dissertation analyzes the discursive constructions of community and place in Elm Valley, a multiethnic and multi-class urban neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Data include e-mails, conversation, meeting talk, ethnographic interviews, a grant proposal for public toilets, and a play about neighborhood life. (More)

This dissertation examines the potential of industry clusters as an economic development strategy for metropolitan regions and their central cities. The ultimate research question is whether or not industry clusters matter for economic development and, if so, how and why they do. (More)

During the 1990s, poverty increased significantly in U.S. suburbs; as of the year 2000 the suburbs became home to the greatest share of the poor. For the most part, what we know about suburban poverty is limited to demographic trends. This research seeks to move beyond these descriptive snapshots. Using Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb, as a case-study, three primary questions guide this research:

1. How is poverty socially organized and what is everyday life like for the suburban poor?
2. How is the social and economic life of the wider community organized around poverty in the suburbs?
3. To what extent are these neighborhoods economically, politically, and socially isolated from the broader metropolitan community?

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Enacted in 1992, the HOME Investment Partnership Program works towards increasing the supply of affordable housing through flexible federal housing block grants. (More)