According to WCAX's story this week about a local family of four, the road out of homelessness is particularly long and challenging when juggling the needs of children.
The family spent six months in a shelter specially designed for families, which required balancing the demands of living with ten other families. The family's oldest daughter faced the additional complexities of attending elementary school while living in a shelter.
The stresses and costs of the road out of homelessness highlight the importance of helping families avoid the road into homelessness in the first place. Identifying interventions that help residents weather precarious situations and stay in their homes will reduce the number of us who experience homelessness each year, suggests a growing body of research on the impact of homelessness prevention programs, such as the latest research brief from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' evaluation division.