The Executive Summary

Expand your research from the Policy Identification and Analysis assignment in Week 3. For local or state policy references, research city, county or appropriate state government websites. For federal policy references, the following websites may support additional research options.

• Governmental Accounting Office.
• Public Agenda.
• RAND Corporation.
• Policy Library.
• American Enterprise Institute.
• Cato Institute.
• Economic Policy Institute.
• The Heritage Foundation.

Scenario

Use the policy you selected from the Policy Identification and Analysis assignment in Week 3 to research a published study related to your chosen area of focus. Then, prepare an Executive Summary with the following criteria listed for this assignment.

Write a 2–3 page paper in which you:

1. Establish the purpose(s) of the executive summary.
2. Provide the background to the issue.
3. Discuss the results of the research, identifying the models used to obtain the results.
4. Discuss appropriate economic predictors.
5. Propose at least two reliable, implementable recommendations.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Appropriately incorporate at least two quality sources. A quality source can be either grey literature, such as a news article, or scholarly, such as peer reviewed/professional industry references. In the case of public administration, government or nonprofit websites are appropriate quality resources.

The course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Create persuasive and targeted communications informed by policy analysis and research.

POLICY IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS

January 23, 2021

Addressing Homelessness Support Policy
The rate of homelessness is alarming.
Homelessness is a public health and economic concern.
The homeless individuals lack access to care, have chronic illness, sleep in cold weather, and consume cheap starchy foods.
Homelessness is a human tragedy as individuals live in tents and bridges thus vulnerable to bad weather, animal attacks and violence.
Causes of homelessness include substance abuse, mental illness, sexual abuse and domestic violence. 

…cont.
Also factors such as job loss, unaffordable housing, and disability lead to homelessness (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2017).
Apart from being a policy issue, homelessness presents a political quandary.
Political conflicts have negatively affected the housing supply thus rendering many people homeless.
Such conflicts and debates have impeded the agencies such as McKinney Homeless Assistance Act to assist in eliminating homelessness.

Identify Risk and Challenges
Stress, fear, and depression.
Drug abuse, indulging in crime and violence, and sexual assault.
Inability to secure employment, access education, proper hygiene, and other basic or social amenities.
Developing health problems such as extreme diseases, skin disorders, trauma, respiratory illness and malnutrition.
Other health problems include parasitic infestations, dental and periodontal diseases, infectious hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, and degenerative joint diseases.

Identify and Construct Policy Alternatives and Solutions
Policy alternatives to addressing homelessness support include interagency collaboration, federal housing assistance, and permanent supportive housing (Morton et al., 2018).
Solutions to homelessness problem include:
Having a community-wide coordinated approach to deliver services, housing and programs.
Provision of simple housing or rapid re-housing; which involves connecting people to housing and services.
Providing permanent supportive housing for the most vulnerable.
Designing a crisis response system to identify the homeless, prevent homelessness, and connect people with affordable housing and services.
Increasing employment opportunities and income to support housing stability.
Building career pathways by providing sustainable and meaningful job training and technical skill development.
Fostering education connections to the vulnerable groups to strengthen their economic capability.

Identify Stakeholders and Key Roles
Workforce development agencies; responsible for generating career paths, skill training and employment.
Public housing authority; providing and connecting individuals with affordable housing.
Law enforcement agencies; ensure order, safety and address complaints related to homelessness and relocations (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2017).
Public health and benefits agencies; identify needs and provide necessary health and social amenities.

Funding opportunities, challenges and budget cost factors
Funding opportunities include:
Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust Grants,
Steele-Reese Foundation Grant Program,
Affordable Housing Loans for Low-Income Communities,
Housing Projects Serving Rural Veterans, and
YouthBuild Grants

…cont.
Funding challenges include: 
Inability to access and create integrated services to rural areas with dispersed population (Morton et al., 2018).
Agencies fearing losing funds, autonomy or control over funding services.
Reduced funding due to increasing number of homeless people.
Inadequate data concerning the trend of homelessness.
The budget cost factors include: varied income structure, saving measures, the spending habits, level of tech savvy, and individual personality.

Supportive and evaluative criteria
Relevance; to determine whether or not the objectives of an intervention are consistent with the need of the homeless and the policy.
Effectiveness; to determine the relative importance of intervention’s objectives.
Impact; to determine the long-term effects of the intervention, and
Sustainability; to determine whether or not benefits from the interventions is continuous for a longer period.

Incentives, Subsidies and Potential Benefits
Housing allowances to low earning individuals.
Subsidies such as certain monthly payments, programs that subsidize construction or programs that settle a portion of mortgage costs to landlords to lower cost of housing (Bassuk 2010).
Providing OHRHA subsidy- a Pigouvian subsidy.
“Housing First” Program

Conclusion
Homelessness results from factors such as job loss, unaffordable housing, disability lead to homelessness, sexual abuse, and domestic violence.
The associated risk and challenges include health problems, mental illness, drug abuse, unemployment and lack of basic needs.
Proposed solutions include a community-wide coordinated approach, rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing, and providing employment opportunities.
Funding opportunities include grants from various community and global groups.

References
Bassuk, E. L. (2010). Ending child homelessness in America. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 496.
Morton, M. H., Dworsky, A., Matjasko, J. L., Curry, S. R., Schlueter, D., Chávez, R., & Farrell, A. F. (2018). Prevalence and correlates of youth homelessness in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 62(1), 14-21.
Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2017). Homelessness. Our World in Data.