Multisectoral Collaborations to Address Homelessness

Abstract

Homelessness is a multidimensional problem that requires intervention and support from multiple domains. By definition, homeless populations need affordable housing, but their needs often surpass housing; people also need access to health and mental health care, employment opportunities, social networks, and community-based supports. Intervention efforts, especially for people experiencing chronic homelessness, require collaboration from a wide range of sectors, with the government, law enforcement, local businesses, nonprofit service providers, and civil advocates implementing various policies and programs. This chapter introduces multisectoral collaborations, or partnerships among more than one sector (i.e., government, private for-profit, private nonprofit), and describes their characteristics. It presents two overall multisectoral collaborative approaches (i.e., interagency collaborations and for-profit-nonprofit collaborations) designed to address homelessness. The chapter uses the Continuum of Care and US Interagency Council on Homelessness models to illustrate interagency collaborations as well as business improvement district and social enterprise models as examples of for-profit-nonprofit collaborations. It concludes the chapter by providing an overview of the macro and generalist skills that are useful for social workers engaged in multisectoral collaborations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)