The Unhoused Initiative is excited to announce our 2024-2025 Faculty Research Grant awardees. This year, we selected five projects- four original proposals and one UI-developed proposal in partnership with the Santa Clara Police Department. Despite the severity of the crisis in the Silicon Valley, there is a lack of research related to local homelessness. Through faculty research grants, we hope to bridge this gap to inform local policy and programs. Continue reading below for more information about this year’s selected grantees and their projects.
Dosun Ko, Assistant Professor in Santa Clara’s School of Education & Counseling Psychology will address how the intersections of race, disability status, and homelessness contribute to disparities in school discipline, absenteeism, and juvenile justice involvement, with particular attention to marginalized student populations. The study will employ Quantitative Critical Race Theory to explore the systemic inequities that affect students of color with disabilities who also experience housing instability. Professor Ko will collaborate with local organizations, such serving these student populations to co-develop policy recommendations that will inform local educational interventions.
Micah Lattanner, Assistant Professor in Public Health, seeks to assess the impact of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) on health outcomes and identify predictors of PSH retention—providing valuable insight into “for whom” and “under what conditions” PSH is most effective in enhancing health and continued residence in PSH. The study, titled Who Stays in? A Longitudinal Study of Individual and Social Factors Predicting Long-Term Retention in Permanent Supportive Housing and Health Outcomes, utilizes data from Santa Clara County’s Valley Homeless Healthcare Program and is in partnership with Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Department, as well as Unhoused Initiative affiliate faculty, Dr. Jamie Chang.
Naomi Levy, Professor of Political Science, will focus on the impacts of local organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness. Her project will employ the Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation’s structured research process to generate “bottom up” indicators of program impact of three homeless service organizations. The study’s findings will be used to evaluate programming and inform funding decisions to maximize impact beyond traditional outcome measures. Professor Levy will use her grant funds to support SCU student researchers working on the project.
Bill Sundstrom & Michael Kevane, both professors of Economics in SCU’s Leavey School of Business, will dedicate their Winter and Spring 2025 Santa Clara Urban Issues Research Lab (SCUIRL) courses to an Unhoused Initiative developed project in partnership with the Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD). The project, titled Data Wrangling, Visualization, and Analysis of Data Provided by Santa Clara Police Department on Calls and Police Responses Related to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Sites, will evaluate SCPD data related to calls for service at PSH sites to identify patterns and trends. The data analysis will be utilized to inform recommendations for allocation of services and resources. The study will also provide Professor Sundstrom and Kevane’s students with training in spatial data analysis and community-partnered projects.
Tim Urdan, Professor of Psychology, will study the what local schools, government agencies and community organizations are doing to support the academic success or unhoused students. He will also interview the parents/guardians of unhoused students to obtain their insights about how well their students’ needs are being met and what more they believe could be done to better support their children. Professor Urdan will use the resulting data and analyses to create recommendations for how local schools, organizations and agencies can better meet the needs of unhoused students.
The Unhoused Initiative at SCU 