Federalism at Work: Housing the Homeless in North Carolina
Year: 2009
Type: preprint
Abstract: Homelessness is a major social problem in the US. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HUD) estimates that some two to three million individuals in the US experience homelessness each year with a smaller, more visible group experiencing repeated or chronic homelessness. This latter group places disproportionately heavy demands on available social service agencies at the local, state, and federal levels of government. Since 2003 the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has worked with over 350 communities of all sizes across the country to aid them in developing ten-year strategic plans to end chronic homelessness in their communities. While the focus of these plans has been on chronic homelessness, the goal is also to create an infrastructure that will enable the local communities to aid the homeless in general. USICH has also spurred the development of state-level interagency councils and serves as a major diffusion point for information on the successes and activities of its local partners. Similarly, the state councils have performed a comparable function within their jurisdictions.This article examines how this process has worked in the state of North Carolina where thirteen communities and counties have developed such strategic plans during the past five years. These communities encompass larger urban areas such as the cities of Charlotte, Durham, and Raleigh to smaller, more rural communities working in partnership with their home county governments. We focus on the vertical dimension of federal-state and state-community interactions, and the horizontal dimension of community-community interactions as a means of examining the diffusion of information, policy ideas, and expertise. The paper concludes by assessing this pattern of policy development within the broader literature of federalism as it has evolved under the current Bush administration.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Robert J. Thompson, Carmine Scavo
Institution: East Carolina University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1496099420