{"id":72799,"date":"2024-08-30T17:53:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T00:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=72799"},"modified":"2024-10-31T11:05:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T18:05:30","slug":"homelessness-research-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/homelessness-research-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"How NAU researchers are tackling (and preventing) homelessness in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homelessness in Arizona has reached a new crisis point. In 2023, more than 14,000 people were without shelter\u2014a 29% increase since 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Help could be on the way, thanks to grant funds that are fueling new research projects based at NAU and developed alongside community partners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura Noll <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>Robert Wickham<\/span><\/b>, both associate professors of psychological sciences at NAU, recently received more than $1 million in grants from the Garcia Family Foundation to lead three projects aimed at not only finding housing and support for unsheltered Arizonans but also preventing future homelessness in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons why homelessness is a huge issue in Arizona is because there\u2019s a ratio of 18 to 10: For every 18 people who become unhoused, we only have the capacity to house 10 of them,\u201d Wickham said. \u201cService providers are overwhelmed, and it\u2019s important to support them as they\u2019re navigating this intense situation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The series of projects kicked off when Wickham arrived at NAU in 2021. Within weeks of his start, the statistical analyst was invited to join the Arizona Housing Analytics Collaborative (AzHAC), a Garcia Foundation-funded research partnership between Arizona\u2019s three public universities. In the three years since, faculty members and graduate students at NAU, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona have been leveraging state datasets, including the Homelessness Information System, to identify patterns that could help curb homelessness in the future.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, we\u2019ve been focused on understanding why Arizona\u2019s current support system is not working for a subset of folks,\u201d Wickham said. \u201cAs the rates of homelessness in the state of Arizona continue to rise, it is critically important that we better understand the underlying challenges that lead individuals and families to become unhoused.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>
Robert Wickham is part of a tri-university team that is leveraging state datasets, including the Homelessness Information System, to identify patterns that could help curb homelessness in the future. Photo: Josh Biggs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with the Maricopa Association of Governments, the research group is examining the sequences Arizonans move through before and after becoming homeless. They recently discovered that unpaid utility bills are a key canary in the coal mine\u2014a sign that people could soon struggle to keep up with rent. Wickham said that in order to prevent these people from becoming homeless, he and his colleagues are facilitating communication between utility companies and organizations that provide support for low-income families who may come up short on other necessities, like food or school supplies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Support for northern Arizonans<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Wickham said the reach of NAU\u2019s work on homelessness will soon extend even farther: Last year, the Garcia Family Foundation reached out to him to ask if he had any ideas for expanding AzHAC into northern Arizona.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Wickham pulled in Noll, a trauma psychologist with experience solving complex problems through partnerships with community organizations. With a $400,000 grant from the foundation, Wickham and Noll established a Community Impact Fellows Program. The grant funds support master\u2019s students as they work with Flagstaff Shelter Services, Catholic Charities of Northern Arizona and the Northland Family Help Center to help local residents who are unhoused and grappling with other complex issues, like domestic violence and disability.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fellowship program isn\u2019t just giving students much-needed experience addressing the kinds of problems they\u2019ll face in their careers; it\u2019s also helping our community partners by meeting them where they are,\u201d Noll said. \u201cWe\u2019re working with these organizations to identify and address what they see as their biggest challenges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 2023-24 school year, for example, graduate students embedded at Northland Family Health Center found that employee burnout was one of the organization\u2019s biggest challenges. Burnout led to frequent staff turnover and shortages, which made it harder for the domestic violence center to meet every patient\u2019s needs. This fall, the students will evaluate staff members\u2019 burnout experiences through interviews, analyzing the shelter\u2019s new employee training process and examining an exit survey for those who leave. The grad students aim to pave the way for a brighter future at Northland for both employees and clients.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>
Wickham, center, and Laura Noll, not pictured, established a Community Impact Fellowship Program this year. This fall, graduate student fellows will work with employees at Northland Family Health Center to address and solve burnout. Photo: Josh Biggs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Noll said Ph.D. students and undergraduate Lumberjacks are now involved, too. Two interdisciplinary health doctoral students are drawing on prior experience with community-engaged research and trauma psychology to help evaluate statewide and local programs, with a focus on implementing trauma-informed evaluation procedures. Alongside the Community Impact Fellows, they\u2019ll also mentor NAU undergraduate students looking to gain hands-on experience with research that benefits the local community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt NAU, we\u2019re always asking ourselves, \u2018What do our students need to be economically mobile, future readiness trained and to make good on their promise to help the community?\u2019\u201d Noll said. \u201cThis program not only checks all of those boxes, but it also draws on the university\u2019s resources and the broader community\u2019s knowledge to create a better future in northern Arizona.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Preventing homelessness<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Noll and Wickham aren\u2019t stopping there. Together with nearly a dozen agencies throughout Arizona, they\u2019re working to help stop homelessness before it happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor folks who are living really close to the margins, they\u2019re living paycheck to paycheck,\u201d Wickham said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t get to work one day\u2014say their truck breaks down and they don\u2019t have money to fix it\u2014that means they can\u2019t get to the job site, and that suddenly throws their life out of balance. These are the people who are most at risk of becoming homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wickham and Noll have been asked to lead a team that will disperse $10 million to nonprofit organizations that provide food, medical loans and other services that Arizonans like these rely on to stay afloat. The funds come from the Garcia Family Foundation, St. Vincent De Paul and the Arizona Department of Housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to track the outcome of folks who receive these prevention funds to find out whether they actually work in forestalling and preventing homelessness,\u201d Wickham said. \u201cIf it works, it will not only keep people securely housed but will also prevent people from suffering the knock-on psychological effects of homelessness.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why choose to focus on homelessness in Arizona? Because, Noll said, no one in the United States is immune to the possibility of losing the roof over their head.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is that we are only as safe, healthy and secure as our most vulnerable, marginalized and underserved community members,\u201d she said. \u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic showed us how interconnected all our healthcare needs are. In this area, the wealthy person and the unhoused person wound up in the same hospital, being treated by the same doctors. We have a home in common, and that\u2019s reason enough to look out for each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homelessness in Arizona has reached a new crisis point. In 2023, more than 14,000 people were without shelter\u2014a 29% increase since 2020. Help could be on the way, thanks to grant funds that are fueling new research projects based at NAU and developed alongside community partners. Laura Noll and Robert Wickham, both associate professors of…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":72801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}