The Causes, Consequences, and Responses to Homelessness

Poverty is a complex issue encompassing a wide range of experiences. Encampments of people experiencing homelessness can be found throughout the U.S. and in countries around the world. Our guest today is Connie Snyder Mick, the Director of academic affairs at the CSC, Director of the Poverty Studies Interdisciplinary Minor, and Editor of the Journal of Poverty and Public Policy. In 2016-17 an encampment of people formed who lived unsheltered under the viaduct on Main Street in South Bend, IN. Connie led a case study that looked at this encampment through the eyes of several different stakeholders to better understand some of the causes, consequences, and responses that might reflect encampments in other places. By listening closely to these stories, they uncovered the barriers to finding and keeping stable housing and better understand why encampments form, persist, and even thrive.