Dr. Molly Richard

speaker

91 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 15 Jul

Dr. Molly Richard’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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It's Been a Minute · Homelessness is more common than you think. · 15 Jul 2026 podcast

And one thing I wanted to add to that is taking a second to think about who is potentially most harmed by those narrow definitions or what are sort of the disparate impacts for certain groups when we do only focus on sheltered or unsheltered homelessness or focus our responses on those who are visible.

And so for one, it's definitely families with children.

And so

When we think about that broader definition of homelessness that the Department of Education counts and estimates each year, we see that 1.5 million children experience homelessness each year.

And the last time that they've reported it, so it's the 2023-24 school year, it's the highest number ever on record.

So the school definition is showing 11 times as many children experiencing homelessness when we have that expanded definition.

Around 75% across the nation or in each community of children experiencing homelessness identified by schools are in a doubled-up situation.

So when we have our narrow definition of homelessness, yes, it's about scaling resources and all that, and it benefits some people because we want to attack visible homelessness so that we can show that we made some effort and then get elected.

We also see these negative impacts on certain groups when we make those policy decisions.

So much has gone into informing that.

And I think just being really curious and understanding all the varied experiences.

But I really want to like pick up on what Margo is saying just now, because I think what's really interesting is thinking about how during that time.

Homelessness went from a more narrow definition, like you were saying, right, for being a disaffiliated single adult on Skid Row who's not from this town to, okay, now let's reconceptualize it to actually it's all these – it includes families, people of color, working people.

We're actually seeing it in a different way now.

And so it actually gives me a little hope, too, that we can do that again a little bit because we did change what homelessness meant to people and it has changed over the last –

you know, 50 years.

And so I would say that some of the things that I think in my life that also have shifted it to being like, oh, I understand it as a spectrum of housing insecurity and instability.

So people who are not nerdy about homelessness policy and services like me, they've seen like the Florida project.

You got to let me know.

It was due yesterday.

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