Homelessness in Maryland: Evaluating the Solutions Program
This paper examines homelessness in Maryland as a growing public health concern and proposes a critical evaluation of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development's Homelessness Solutions Program (HSP). It identifies the target population — homeless individuals in Maryland, estimated at over 50,000 — and explains why addressing this issue is essential given the strong link between housing instability, poverty, and poor health. The paper outlines key evaluation questions related to program effectiveness, cost-efficiency, cultural competency, and participant outcomes. Drawing on existing assessments by the Maryland Interagency Council on Homelessness, it highlights gaps between program spending and measurable improvements, ultimately arguing that a rigorous evaluation can help identify opportunities to strengthen homelessness interventions and contribute meaningfully to public health.
- Introduction: Overview of Maryland homelessness and paper purpose
- Target Population and Public Health Importance: Who is homeless in Maryland and why it matters
- The Homelessness Solutions Program: Description and history of Maryland's HSP
- Proposed Evaluation Questions: Key questions to guide program evaluation
- Expanding on Existing Evaluations: MICH findings, funding gaps, and proposed contributions
- Conclusion: Summary of findings and evaluation value
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper connects a concrete state-level program (Maryland's HSP) to broader public health principles, grounding its argument in both policy and human impact.
- It uses a structured, numbered format to logically guide the reader through the problem, the program, evaluation questions, and existing findings — making the argument easy to follow.
- The author demonstrates critical thinking by acknowledging the HSP's reported successes while pointedly noting that homelessness has continued to worsen despite significant public investment.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates how to frame a program evaluation proposal using prospective evaluation questions. Rather than simply describing a program, the author constructs a set of focused, answerable questions — covering outcomes tracking, cost-effectiveness, cultural competency, and post-housing support — that a real evaluation could operationalize. This technique shows the reader how evaluation planning begins with identifying measurable gaps between stated goals and observed outcomes.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a broad problem statement situating Maryland homelessness in a national context, then narrows progressively: it defines the target population, introduces the HSP, enumerates evaluation questions, reviews prior evaluations and their limitations, and closes with a synthesis in the conclusion. This funnel structure — from general problem to specific evaluative framework — is a common and effective pattern in public health policy writing at the undergraduate level.
Introduction
Like many other states, homelessness in Maryland is a serious issue today. Despite ongoing efforts by the federal and state governments, Maryland has continued to experience an increase in homelessness in recent years, especially among families and individuals suffering the combination of poverty and a dearth of affordable housing (Decker et al., 2022). While some of this trend is attributable to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effect on the national economy, a wide array of chronic issues comprises the complex problem of homelessness in Maryland (The Maryland Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2022). Moreover, some people choose to remain homeless for a constellation of personal reasons despite the adversity of the condition, including most especially substance abuse and mental illness.
Consequently, identifying viable strategies to improve the effectiveness of homeless interventions represents a timely and important enterprise. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of homelessness in Maryland and explain why it is important to address this target population. An overview of the program proposed for evaluation is followed by a discussion of the evaluation questions most salient in addressing this problem. Further, an assessment of how the proposed evaluation will expand on existing work and a discussion of other evaluations of this program and their findings are followed by a description of the potential contributions the proposed evaluation can make to public health.
References
Adams, J. & Neville, S. (2020). Program evaluation for health professionals: What it is, what it isn't. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1–11.
Decker, M. R., Grace, K. T., Holliday, C. N., Bevilacqua, K. G., Kaur, A., & Miller, J. (2022). Safe and stable housing for intimate partner violence survivors, Maryland, 2019–2020. American Journal of Public Health, 112(6), 865–870.
Homelessness in Maryland. (2023). Healthcare for the Homeless. Retrieved from
Homeless Solutions Program. (2023). Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Retrieved from
The Maryland Interagency Council on Homelessness. (2022). Annual report on homelessness. Annapolis: Department of Housing and Community Development.
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