2018 was an active year for ICPH, kicked off by our Beyond Housing conference in January and ending with our series of releases for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week at the end of the year. We redesigned our website with the aim of making our reports and interactive data more accessible. We also released numerous reports, infographics, and tools focused on the education, health & well-being, housing & shelter, and community-specific issues faced by homeless children and families.

Education: Examining the disparities faced by homeless students
In 2018, ICPH released The United States of Homelessness in conjunction with our panel at SXSW EDU. For the first time, this interactive map combines state- and school district-level data on student homelessness in all 50 states, letting users explore this issue in their community.
ICPH also examined the disparities faced by students experiencing homelessness in several new reports. Suspension Hubs: The Rise in Suspensions Among Homeless Students focused on the disproportionate rate at which homeless students are suspended, and the concentration of these suspensions in certain schools. Learning English While Homeless: Fast Fluency Drives Academic Success explored the challenges of learning a new language while experiencing housing instability. Bridging the Graduation Gap: Why School Stability is Key for Homeless High School Students examined the ways that instability factors like chronic absenteeism and mid-year transfers prevent homeless high schoolers from graduating on time. We also asked fundamental questions surrounding the growing crisis of student homelessness in NYC : who these students are, where they go to school, and how this mounting crisis evolved in recent years.
Health & Well-Being: Exploring risk behaviors, safety, and hunger
Homelessness impacts the health and well-being of those who experience it, including differences in risk behaviors, safety, and health outcomes. We documented the higher rates of attempted suicide , missing school due to feeling unsafe , and asthma among homeless students.

Our infographic on doubled-up students demonstrated that they experience health risks at rates similar to other homeless teens. And in looking at dating violence, we showed that homeless high school students are at alarmingly high risk for sexual violence.
ICPH also mapped the overlap of food insecurity and homelessness with the release of two interactive maps—one national and the other looking at NYC .
Housing & Shelter: Understanding housing instability in all its forms
Throughout the year, we focused on the exclusionary way HUD counts children experiencing homelessness, first with the release of our policy commentary, Are We Really Counting America's Homeless Families? and then further during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. In our infographic, One Issue, Three Counts, One Reality , we showed the vast difference between the count of homeless students by the Department of Education, and the count of homeless people in families by HUD. In a series of state-specific infographics we examined these counts for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Community: Highlighting local perspectives on family homelessness
ICPH began 2018 focused on community and exploring family homelessness at the local level during our 5th biennial Beyond Housing Conference . Over 700 service providers and big-picture thinkers from 37 states and three countries gathered to share their perspectives and discuss strategies to confront homelessness in communities across the country. Stay tuned for information about our 2020 conference .
ICPH also joined forces with SchoolHouse Connection, America’s Promise Alliance, and Civic Enterprises for the Education Leads Home (ELH) campaign. The campaign is focused on closing educational achievement gaps for homeless students.

And last month, Sesame Street in Communities unveiled a new initiative on family homelessness. From the beginning of this effort, ICPH was proud to share our research and perspective as the team at Sesame Street developed resources to help children better understand the trauma of homelessness and remind the young people experiencing it that they are not alone.
We are encouraged by the rising awareness of the struggles facing homeless children in big cities, brimming suburbs, and close-knit rural communities. A growing audience is reading, using, and sharing ICPH's maps and reports, thus taking note of the impact homelessness has on children and their families.
 
We look forward to working with you in 2019!
Top Five Clicks in 2018