In 2019, communities of Central Mississippi experienced large-scale immigration raids. Past studies on immigration enforcement operations show that these types of events have significant consequences. Despite this scholarly evidence, little is known about the effects of large immigration raids and local responses in rural communities. Given the ongoing initiatives to carry out mass detention and deportation of immigrants, learning more about these events and the communities affected is paramount. Based on data from semi-structured interviews, this study uses the Community Capitals Framework to examine how large immigration raids have transformed communities. Results show that the raids had negative consequences in all the community capitals, but public awareness about these events led to spiraling up locally available assets to address community challenges. These findings highlight the critical consequences of immigration raids and key community resources that can be mobilized to support immigrant families and communities.
Rural homelessness represents a significant public health and human rights challenge, but research on homelessness in the United States has predominantly focused on urban settings. This case study describes a mixed-methods assessment of the prevalence, causes, and consequences of homelessness in a rural county. Through both surveys and interviews with stakeholders from multiple sectors (including both service providers and those experiencing homelessness), we built a rich picture of the scale and experiential dimensions of homelessness within the county. Here, we present our research methods, the main findings of each primary data collection arm, and the actionable conclusions drawn from the synthesis of those findings. We also provide several recommendations for social scientists investigating homelessness in rural settings and make a call to action for future research on both homelessness and housing insecurity in rural settings.
Rural homelessness remains under-researched despite its prevalence outside the city. This research note presents preliminary findings from a case study in the Salinas Valley, California, examining how rurality—particularly its statistical definitions and socio-cultural conceptions—shapes homelessness policy formation, resource allocation, and local politics. Semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2023, alongside document analysis, explore rural homelessness in this unique context. Findings suggest that rural homelessness is highly salient to local politicians and policy-makers, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with service clustering in Salinas and other regional towns with more progressive policies. Challenges include housing diverse unhoused subpopulations, especially migrant farmworkers, and confronting the socio-cultural constructions of coastal California by affluent residents. These constructions help enact the “lettuce curtain” and hinder affordable housing development. These findings offer insights into other rural contexts, contribute to debates on definitional politics in agricultural regions, and highlight the challenges and successes of delivering homelessness services in rural areas with limited resources and political opposition.
Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in alleviating heirs’ property ownership precarity have long sought to connect these owners to titling and land management resources, but there is limited scholarly evidence on successful interventions. Using administrative data from the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation® (CHPP®), this article explores the demographic characteristics, types of direct legal services received, and referral pathways of landowners seeking legal assistance from CHPP® between 2017 and 2021. We find that applicants are primarily elderly, Black women, referred through four main pathways: (1) owners’ personal networks, (2) CHPP® Outreach efforts, (3) CHPP® partner organizations—including public, private, and nonprofit agencies, and (4) word of mouth (other individuals/entities not formally connected with CHPP®, including outside legal and forestry professionals). Last, we identify a strong desire for estate planning among applicants, despite documented legal distrust among heirs’ property owners. This analysis has important implications for designing targeted interventions to assist heirs’ property owners beyond the South Carolina context.
