178: Homelessness in the Time of COVID-19

We talk with Dan Treglia, Ph.D. in Social Welfare about the impact of COVID-19 on America's 500,000 people experiencing homelessness. Choosing whether to go to a shelter, where social distancing may not be possible is becoming a life and death decision for many Americans. 

Dan discusses the issues many Cities are facing and what the potential policies that could make a difference are. 

 

About

Dan Treglia is a PostDoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and
Practice who uses quantitative methods to address a range of social policy issues – most notably
homelessness – with a clear focus on policy and programmatic implications.

Dan’s recent work focuses on the use of large administrative data sets to address multi-sector,
seemingly intractable problems. Recent examples include an evaluation of the Supportive Services for
Veteran Families program, a homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program run by the VA; a
randomized controlled trial of a homelessness prevention program in New York City; the integration of
machine learning algorithms into a VA homelessness screening tool to improve resource targeting; and
forecasting healthcare and nursing home needs and costs among older homeless adults.

He has a PhD in Social Welfare from the School of Social Policy and Practice and a Masters in Public
Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Prior to enrolling at Penn, Dan served as Deputy
Director of Research at New York City’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS). Among other
responsibilities, he led the City’s effort to estimate its unsheltered homeless population using a
methodology recognized for its rigor by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also
led the evaluation of the Housing Help Program, which prevented eviction in high-poverty areas,
assessments of shelter use and recidivism predictors, and several agency public reporting and policy-
analysis initiatives.