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The Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies (CHPS) is a
multidisciplinary effort to research homelessness and develop ways
to prevent chronic homelessness among people with severe mental
illness who comprise about 25 percent of homeless adults 18 and
older. The Center involves collaborators from the New York State
Psychiatric Institute, the Mailman School of Public Health, and many
other departments and schools at Columbia University. The Center
opened in October 2005 with funds from the National Institute of
Mental Health. It is the nation’s only NIMH-funded research center
for the development of new and more effective approaches to
homelessness prevention. The Center brings together scientists from
many disciplines and departments, including psychiatry, social work,
economics, and urban planning.
The Center is targeted to become a national resource for new
methods for prevention and early intervention, providing models for
service delivery that could be applicable nationwide as
municipalities plan to implement the federal Interagency Council on
Homelessness initiative to End Chronic Homelessness in Ten Years.
Collaborators in this effort include researchers affiliated with
Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, and New York University, providers of
homeless services in the greater New York City region, the New York
City Department of Homeless Services, and the New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. |
The Center‘s Director and Principal Investigator is Columbia
Professor Carol L.M. Caton, Ph.D. The Center’s Co-Director is Ezra
Susser, M.D., Dr.P.H., Professor and Chair of the Mailman School’s
Department of Epidemiology.
The Center’s membership of over 75 individuals includes university
faculty at both junior and senior levels, providers of services to
the homeless, consumers, and policy makers in City and State
government. |
