Cycles of Risk
People who grew up in precarious home environments are more likely to raise children in similar contexts, although that’s not necessarily their intention. The risk factors associated with homelessness are especially dangerous in this way; they get passed down generationally. Studies have found a strong relationship between the amount of childhood maltreatment and family dysfunction that homeless parents experienced and the amount that their children were experiencing. Poverty has also been also associated with child maltreatment, indicating that young people are growing up exposed to the same risks their homeless parents did.
For example, women who were abused as children are more likely to become targets for violence as adults through no fault of their own. If they have children with abusive partners, then their children are at risk for poverty, abuse, residential instability, foster care placement, and many other predictors of future homelessness, creating a cycle of risk that’s extremely difficult to break out of.
The Toiletries Delivery is enabling a couple of our HACA members to build, test, and develop a toiletries delivery service that fills the gaps they see in the existing homelessness system. This process is helping us understand how we can proactively enable people experiencing homelessness to help themselves by developing opportunities for them to help their community.
The Toiletries Delivery is enabling a couple of our HACA members to build, test, and develop a toiletries delivery service that fills the gaps they see in the existing homelessness system. This process is helping us understand how we can proactively enable people experiencing homelessness to help themselves by developing opportunities for them to help their community.
This is Donna.
She is
a mom,
an educator,
an advocate.
What happens when you speak human to human?
She is a person experiencing homelessness.
We asked Donna,
"What do you want people to know about you?"
Listen to what she had to say:
Explore this site as...
PURPOSE OF THIS SITE
Since September 2017, the Office of Innovation’s i-team has worked with individuals and partners across the City of Austin to understand homelessness in Austin from the perspective of people living those experiences. We have also examined some of the public and non-profit response systems that are addressing this growing crisis.
Transparency. Education. Engagement.
This website has been created to share the i-team’s processes and research, communicate what we learned, and provide up-to-date information about our recommendations and ongoing collaborative projects.