Homelessness is the most pressing social problem facing urban California today. It is also a quintessential concern of local politics, drawing together among the most important policy types over which local governments exert jurisdiction: housing, policing, land use, and social service provision. As of yet, however, surprisingly little research has focused on understanding homelessness as a political issue.

My dissertation pursues a mixed-methods comparative analysis of homeless policymaking in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 2008 and 2020 to investigate the political dynamics that shape local policy responses to homelessness.

Research for the project involves:

• ethnographic archival analysis of 700+ homeless-related policies considered in L.A. and San Francisco, and the legislative meetings in which they were debated.

• GIS and spatial regression analysis of homeless ballot measures put to voters in each city, revealing the stark partisan politics of homelessness.

• GIS analysis of homeless-related policing and enforcement practices.

• Development of a novel typology of homeless policies, calling attention to the entire Homeless Policy Ecosystem, and the consequences of the fragmented governance of urban homelessness. Particular attention is directed toward the way racial disparities are exacerbated when cities prioritize policing of the visibly poor.

Since 2019, I have worked with the Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance at U.C. Santa Cruz to measure food insecurity in Santa Cruz County. The Food Insecurity Index project is a community-engaged research endeavor conducted in collaboration with Second Harvest Food Bank and a coalition of community partners. It aims to generate more granular, "on the ground" estimates of local food insecurity that incorporate data on food assistance provided both through governmental programs (like CalFresh) and by the food bank and its partner agencies. Ultimately, the project aims to generate findings that will inform public policy and support local advocacy efforts.

For our most recent report, we supplemented the Index estimates with interviews with food assistance providers in order to better assess the challenges (and opportunities) they were facing during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project has been featured in an article by the UC Santa Cruz News Center, and on the radio on Good Morning Monterey Bay.