CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In recent years, the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2022a). People experiencing homelessness may live in emergency shelters, transitional housing and shelters, or in tents on sidewalks, unsheltered. The unsheltered homeless population has grown more than the sheltered population. In addition to isolated tents, unsheltered people experiencing homelessness may live in encampments, cars, or abandoned buildings. The unsheltered population is who most housed people see and identify as homeless. On a single night in 2021, more than 326,000 people were experiencing sheltered homelessness in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2022a). The number of sheltered individuals identified as chronically homeless increased by 20% between 2020 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, the reported emergency shelter and transitional housing inventory available for people experiencing homelessness remained relatively flat, but occupancy rates declined.

Cities across the United States have struggled with the impacts of homelessness on their communities and the solutions to solve the needs of hundreds of thousands of people in need of permanent shelter. For some cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Portland, providing a response has been part of the political platform of candidates running for mayor or other state and local positions (City of New York 2023; Bradner 2023; Bloomberg News 2022; Kavanaugh 2023). The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, declared a state of emergency on homelessness on the first day of office (NBC Los Angeles Day City News Service and He 2022). Because of the recent declines in use of public transit in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams launched the Subway Safety Plan in conjunction with the expansion of safe haven sites to move homeless New Yorkers from trains and public spaces to temporary shelters with dedicated supportive services (City of New York 2022a).

The challenges associated with homelessness are pervasive and complex. The causes are systemic and not easily addressed by any one agency or governmental level. After years of reductions in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness, in 2017 the number began to increase, countering nearly a decade of progress of steady declines (Henry et al. 2021). The increase in homelessness is driven by a lack of affordable housing in the United States. According to the most recent annual survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, major cities across the country report that top causes of homelessness among families were: (1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, and (4) low wages, in that order (U.S. Conference of Mayors 2017). The number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States has been increasing in places with affordable housing crises. There is growing evidence that housing market conditions, such as the availability and cost of rental housing, have much more influence in the prevalence of homelessness than conventional factors of poverty, drug use, mental illness, weather, and the amount of public assistance (Colburn and Aldern 2022).

Transit agencies have been struggling in recent years with a decrease in ridership, the safety concerns of riders, and increases in the number of homeless individuals on their systems (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020; Newman et al. 2022). Often transit agencies experience the impacts of homelessness but are limited in their abilities to address the underlying causes or unable to provide the specific support to individuals in need. For many transit agencies, providing direct support to people experiencing homelessness is not core to their mission and operations but is in the purview of other city or local agencies. Transit agencies are trying to balance the need to mitigate negative impacts of homelessness on their systems (e.g., unsightly conditions, general safety concerns, trash and human waste, and encampments) to provide clean, safe transit service to all passengers with a humane approach to supporting efforts to aid people experiencing homelessness.

People experiencing homelessness use transit daily to access services, jobs, education, recreation, and so forth (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020). People experiencing unsheltered homelessness ride buses or sleep in train cars for shelter (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020; Bell et al. 2018). They may set up tents at transit stops, park recreational vehicles adjacent to or on transit property, or live in encampments in subway tunnels.

Over the last several years, transit agencies have developed responses to people experiencing homelessness with a particular attention to people living unsheltered (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020). These transit agencies, including those in locations from all around the country and varying sizes of cities, such as Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, have created programs that support or provide some aid to people experiencing homelessness while also addressing the concerns of their transit agency staff members and housed riders. Other transit agencies are preparing to respond to homelessness or would like to develop responses to homelessness.

To better understand what transit agencies are doing or considering doing to respond to homelessness, TCRP commissioned this project to develop a guide for public transportation agencies and concerned stakeholders on approaches and practices that are responsive to those who are experiencing homelessness. By implementing these approaches, public transportation agencies will be able to preserve the quality of their services and facilities while respecting the rights and mobility needs of people experiencing homelessness, as well as their need for safe places.

This guide presents transit agency experiences and lessons learned as they have built on, recently implemented, or considered programmatic activities that respond to homelessness. In synthesizing the existing and potential practices, the guide is meant to inform transit agencies on how to develop, implement, and improve programs to respond to homelessness.

In this chapter, core and short definitions of terms used frequently in the guide are provided. The audience and the research methods used for this study follow. The final section of this chapter provides an overview of the attributes of programs addressing homelessness.

1.1 Quick Definitions

This section provides summary definitions for terms used frequently in the guide. Detailed definitions and subcategories are presented in Chapter 2 to help transit agency staff better understand the complexity of homelessness and work with homeless services practitioners.

• Continuums of care (CoCs): Local geographic areas that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) created to administer service programs for those experiencing homelessness.

• Homeless: A living state where a person lacks a permanent place to live that is designed for human habitation or long-term habitation. People experiencing homelessness may live outside, in motels, in temporary shelters, in emergency shelters, or in other people’s housing.
• Housed: A person who is living in permanent housing that is intended for long-term habitation and has secure tenure.
• People or person experiencing homelessness: A way of referring to a person without housing that focuses on the person over their housing status. “People experiencing homelessness” is preferred by advocates, social service providers, and individuals themselves instead of “homeless person” or “the homeless community.” People experiencing homelessness may live in shelters (emergency or transitional), or they may live in unsheltered locations.
• Unhoused: People experiencing homelessness, advocates, and some social service agencies use “unhoused” instead of “homeless” to emphasize that a person lacks a particular kind of structure but that they might be living someplace or with people that they would describe as a “home.” “People experiencing homelessness” and “unhoused” are used interchangeably in this document.
• Unsheltered homelessness: A state of living in which people shelter in cars, tents, transit stations, buses, or motels.

1.2 Audience

The primary audience for this guide is transit agency staff responsible for the implementation of programs and practices to address homelessness. This may include staff who serve in key roles for supporting or implementing a program, such as transit agency executives and department managers and leads, particularly in security, operations, and maintenance. Other potential audiences are city agency personnel, transportation agencies, and homeless and social service organizations.

1.3 Research Methods

The research team collected data through a literature review, a scan of transit agency websites, interviews, focus groups, and meeting observations. The team then analyzed the entire set of data to describe practices conducted by several public transit agencies. The team also identified novel or emerging activities that transit agencies viewed as having early success or promise. This research study included several data collection methods.

1.3.1 Literature Review

A literature review was conducted for intersections between public transportation and homelessness. The search for literature included transportation journals and journals focused on homelessness. To best understand specific areas of interest, such as encampments or homeless outreach services, literature about the topic was reviewed broadly to include other city actions and practices. Lastly, the research team identified literature about homelessness in relation to other transportation areas such as airports, as well as about other government agencies responding to unsheltered homelessness on their properties. The research team identified news articles, websites, and other materials that discussed efforts by transit agencies responding to homelessness, especially focusing on the sites identified for more in-depth exploration. The research team also

identified 171 transit agencies that were included in either TCRP Synthesis 121: Transit Agency Practices in Interacting with People Who Are Homeless (Boyle 2016) or a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) study (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020), and searched newspapers, social media, and websites to identify new activities. The researchers found 78 transit agencies with some activities related to homelessness. See Appendix A for a summary of this research.

1.3.2 Case Studies

Nine case studies were conducted to learn about what transit agencies were doing in response to homelessness, how it was working, and what was integral to the successful implementation and long-term sustainability of the program. In addition to the secondary data sources described previously, interviews or focus groups were conducted with transit agency staff and, when available, staff from CoCs and service providers. The discussions focused on learning more about a transit agency’s efforts to respond to homelessness. Across the case studies, 47 people were interviewed or participated in a focus group. A staff member from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness was also interviewed about various transit agency approaches to responding to homelessness across the country. Table 2 lists the case study geographic locations and the transit agencies serving them.

To protect confidentiality, quotations from interviewees, focus groups, and meetings are identified based on the geographic location or transit agency and not by the names of individuals. Homeless service providers are identified by their service work and location. See Appendix B for details about the case study qualitative research methods.

1.3.3 National Transit & Vulnerable Populations Workgroup

As this study began, the research team learned about the creation of the National Transit & Vulnerable Populations Workgroup. This informal group of transit agency staff meets monthly to share information about each transit agencies’ practices to address public safety. While the group’s focus is broader than homelessness, there is overlap with how the transit agencies are rethinking their approaches to crisis management, community engagement, employee training,

Table 2. Case study locations.

and public safety and security. Research team members participated in monthly meetings during 2021 and 2022. The informal group was started by representatives of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART: San Francisco), Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro: Austin, TX), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD), and TriMet (Portland, OR) but has expanded to include other transit agencies, such as Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit: Seattle), Charlotte Area Transit System (Charlotte, NC), Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Metro: Houston), MetroLink (St. Louis), Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA: New York, NY), Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA: Orange County, CA), San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), and Utah Public Transit. During August 2022, the workgroup met in Denver to share information and best practices. The workgroup continues to meet monthly on different topics related to responding to public safety and vulnerable populations.

1.3.4 Attributes of Programs Addressing Homelessness

The intent of this project is to help public transportation agencies preserve the quality of their services and facilities while respecting the rights and mobility needs of people experiencing homelessness, as well as their need for safe places. The research team used thematic analysis to identify commonalities across the literature review, environmental scan, interviews, focus groups, and meeting observations. Within each theme, subthemes were further identified. The collected materials were also reviewed for unique outliers relevant to the study.

After identifying the types of programs transit agencies were undertaking to address homelessness, the research team identified guiding attributes to categorize the programs. The attributes help answer the overarching question: What are current approaches and practices public transit agencies can implement to support people experiencing homelessness and address issues related to homelessness while preserving the quality of their services and facilities and addressing the needs and concerns of the transit agencies’ staff and housed riders?

1.3.4.1 Relevance to Homelessness

This report describes programs relevant to homelessness. People often associate homelessness with issues such as serious mental illness or unmanaged substance use disorders. However, most people experiencing homelessness do not live with serious mental illness or have a current substance abuse condition (National Coalition for the Homeless 2017; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 2021; Polcin 2016). Housed transit riders may also struggle with mental illness or experience mental distress. A full discussion about transit and mental health and crisis management was beyond the scope of this study. Similarly, discussions about fare evasion are relevant for housed riders as well (Wolfgram et al. 2022). These topics are briefly covered in the report, particularly when there is overlap in how transit agencies are addressing these topics.

1.3.4.2 Human Affirming

This research emphasizes human-affirming or humane programs that transit agencies can pursue for people experiencing homelessness. Human-affirming or humane practices and policies are those that treat people experiencing homelessness with respect and dignity (Tars et al. 2021). Humane practices include working with a person experiencing homelessness, connecting them to services, and providing them with food. These types of activities are in line with recommendations by APTA and the Department of Justice’s guide to 21st century policing (Bell et al. 2018; Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 2015).

1.3.4.3 Supportive Approaches

This guide focuses on supportive programs that aim to provide help to people experiencing homelessness while mitigating negative impacts on the transit system, transit agency staff, and other transit system users and riders. These supportive programs are often paired with more traditional activities and approaches such as enhanced cleaning activities and practices to discourage people from sleeping on vehicles and in facilities. The guide focuses more on supportive programs since these policies, programs, and practices are new to many transit agencies.

Drawing on previous studies as well as this study’s research, the following activities are classified as supportive: outreach services, alternative emergency response and crisis intervention, fare reduction or free-fare programs, property identification and low- to no-cost leasing for alternative shelter provision, hygiene access, and transit-oriented development with affordable housing. Traditional operational and enforcement-based approaches may still be part of a transit agency’s policies and practices for unhoused and housed riders. A transit agency may take a comprehensive approach to address the issues of homelessness on its system, which may include a broad array of policies and programs that meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness but also housed transit riders and transit employees. Initiatives to provide clean and safe places for all riders include activities such as enhanced cleaning programs or programs to discourage certain activities in specific areas, such as long-term sleeping on vehicles and in facilities. A comprehensive approach will use a mixture of supportive and operational or enforcement-based practices that look for the most humane way of addressing homelessness on the system while preserving the quality of the transit services and facilities.

1.3.4.4 Results Oriented

Where homelessness programs were reported by interviewed transit agencies, it was important to both internal management and external partners to show the programs were successful or working effectively. What success or working effectively looked like varied depending on the location’s circumstances, goals, and organizational culture. Most transit agencies reviewed were collecting some type of data and tracking metrics. For instance, metrics could include the number of people contacted for outreach services or the number of people sent to psychiatric or mental health care instead of being arrested.

Researchers in a UCLA study asked the transit agencies they surveyed about their own definitions of success (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2020). Successful activities often include developing evaluation and monitoring goals. However, as the authors caution, homelessness response activities “may be evaluated along many potentially contradictory axes (from removing or reducing the numbers of unhoused riders from transit systems to providing them with free fares, offering outreach services, or connecting them to health or housing services)” (Loukaitou-Sideris et al. 2021). Using only an outcome measure such as “fewer people experiencing homelessness riding transit vehicles for non-destination travel and living on transit facilities” does not explain what aspects of a program are successful. It is important to track a comprehensive set of measures, including performance, process, and outcomes. For some of the measures, transit agencies may need to collect case management data from external partners to determine the effectiveness of partnerships and the services provided.

1.4 Reading the Report

There are eight chapters in this report as well as appendices that provide additional details, supporting documents, and example materials. The report is divided into two parts.

Part I includes Chapters 1 through 4. Chapters 2 and 3 draw on academic literature, grey literature, websites, reports, and mass media literature reviews to provide an overview of homelessness

and how it is affecting public transportation. Chapter 4 describes the case study locations and draws on primary data collected through interviews, transit agency news releases, media stories, website information, and program documentation.

Part II of the report includes Chapters 5 through 8, which describe homelessness programs identified in the case studies, literature review, and transit industry scan as well as implementation requirements. The chapters are summarized in the following bullet points.

• Chapter 5: Providing Access and Mobility. Transit agencies provide access to essential services (e.g., supportive housing, social services) and mobility for patrons, including people experiencing homelessness. Transit agencies have initiated programs that benefit low-income riders, such as discounted and free fares that especially benefit the unhoused population. Some transit agencies have started to rethink fare evasion penalties. Activities discussed in Chapter 5 include:
  • Access to essential services
  • Transit fares
    • Low-income, discounted, and free-fare programs
    • Fare compliance
• Chapter 6: Supporting People Experiencing Homelessness. For transit agencies creating supportive responses to homelessness, particularly people living in or frequently visiting transit properties, a common strategy is to identify ways to support the people experiencing homelessness. Conducting outreach activities, connecting people to social services and housing, and building partnerships with external providers and agencies go hand in hand with the role of transit police, safety, and security personnel when responding to people experiencing homelessness and to emergency situations. This chapter also covers the transit staff roles, teams, and training related to supportive and outreach practices. Approaches and activities discussed in Chapter 6 include:
  • Outreach services and emergency response approaches and activities
    • Providing helpful information
    • Building relationships
    • Connecting people with services
    • Providing outreach services
    • Providing service on-site
    • Adopting alternative policing and emergency response
    • Decriminalizing or de-emphasizing minor infractions
  • Transit agency staff roles
    • Transit police
    • Crisis management staff
    • Ambassadors
  • Transit agency teams
    • Homeless outreach/response teams
    • Crisis response teams
  • Training
    • Crisis intervention training
    • De-escalation training
    • General awareness training
• Chapter 7: Land, Facilities, and Public Spaces. The management of transit agencies’ assets is extremely important in providing a safe, clean environment for all riders and employees. Transit agencies may use or offer their land, vehicles, facilities, public spaces, and other property as a response to homelessness. Some transit agencies are providing access to restrooms or hygiene facilities, providing land or other resources to create emergency alternative shelter,

• and partnering to create transit-oriented development with affordable housing. Activities discussed in Chapter 7 include:
  • Facilities and assets
    • Public places
    • Encampments
  • Hygiene and public restrooms
  • Public transportation vehicles
  • Alternative shelters or housing
    • Alternative shelters
    • Housing development
• Chapter 8: Implementing an Effective Program to Address Homelessness. Program development activities help public transportation agencies support programs to address homelessness and provide inclusive and safe transit services. Core considerations of implementing programs discussed in Chapter 8 include:
  • Launching and developing programs
    • Pilot programs
    • Comprehensive approaches
  • Building support
    • Agency leadership
    • Promoting internal buy-in
    • Rider engagement and education
  • Accessing funding
  • Utilizing data, performance measures, and evaluations