Housing insecurity and homelessness in the United States
International expert Professor Marah Curtis to address the National Homelessness Conference
10 Jul 2018
The National Homelessness Conference 2018 will open with a keynote address from Professor Marah Curtis, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Curtis is an expert on social policy and poverty and her research focuses on the role of health, housing stability and living arrangements of economically vulnerable families and individuals.
Professor Curtis’ recent work has examined how health challenges can affect a low-income family’s ability to remain housed and can lead to periods of homelessness. This research has explored importance of social services in the form of welfare benefits and housing subsidies and how they are critical in preventing such low-income families from falling into homelessness.
Professor Curtis will join local experts Professor Guy Johnson, Unison Professor of Housing and Homelessness, RMIT University; Katherine McKernan, CEO Homelessness NSW, and Paula Coghill, Aboriginal Specialist, CHIA NSW to reflect on housing insecurity, income support and homelessness in Australia.
Professor Marah Curtis ... will focus on the relationship between housing insecurity and homelessness in the US and the evidence-base linking income supports, regularity of income and housing outcomes.
About the panelists
Australian experts to join panel on housing insecurity, income support and homelessness
Katherine McKernan is the CEO of Homelessness NSW and the Deputy Chair of Homelessness Australia. She is a respected advocate on homelessness issues and has overseen projects including Inner City Sydney Registry Week; A Plan for Change: Older Women and Homelessness, and the NSW Homelessness Industry and Workforce Development Strategy.
Professor Guy Johnson is the inaugural Unison Professor of Urban Housing and Homelessness. Guy has been involved in the area of housing and homelessness for over twenty years and leads the Unison Housing Research Program at RMIT University. His research has contributed extensively to government policy and agency practice that address the housing and support needs of disadvantaged and low income households.
Paula Coghill is the Aboriginal Specialist at CHIA NSW and was the CEO of Casino Boolangle Local Aboriginal Land Council for 6 years. CBLALC runs its own Specialist Homelessness service and recently opened an agri-business joint venture – a first for the community.