New Yorker highlights SP2’s Dr. Dennis Culhane in homelessness feature

The research of Professor Dennis Culhane, Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), is featured prominently in a New Yorker feature about modern homelessness written by Pulitzer Prize – winning author Jennifer Egan.

Egan turns to Dr. Culhane and his groundbreaking research multiple times in the article, which focuses on the lives of individuals at a new supportive-housing facility in Brooklyn, New York, in the context of a national landscape in which the number of Americans who become homeless each year is greater than the number who leave homelessness.

Stating that the solutions to end each individual’s homelessness are within society’s reach, Dr. Culhane discusses his research and policy contributions to address the problem. These include findings on the cost of homelessness as well as a successful federal approach that has reduced homelessness among veterans through rapid rehousing and supportive housing. Dr. Culhane recommends that rental assistance is an important solution in the face of the nation’s slow pace of building and renovation.

Recently, Dr. Culhane’s research has focused on using linked administrative data to gain a better understanding about the service utilization patterns of vulnerable populations. He is co-founder and faculty director of SP2’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, an initiative that promotes the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems by states and localities for policy analysis and systems reform.

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