By Ann Nordby
Poverty and homelessness can seem like intractable problems. The solutions seem straightforward: Don't people just need housing? But the causes—and the solutions—are surprisingly complex.
Maria Hanratty, an associate professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs for the past 27 years, has spent her career digging into disparate data sources to get closer to the answers, in order to inform sound policy decisions.
"I've always been interested in economic inequality," Hanratty said. “How can society be structured so that it's more fair to everybody? How does poverty actually affect people?"
As she retires this year from the Humphrey School, Hanratty is looking back at her career and how social inequality has changed over time, but has never gone away.
Influencing public policy
In the 1990s, Hanratty helped to shape social policy nationally through her work at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She joined the Humphrey School in 1998, and since then, she has taught her students to analyze and help influence public policy.
Hanratty has taught courses in social insurance; poverty, inequality and social policy; and microeconomics, and advised students on their capstone projects. She has also continued researching inequality, publishing, and advising policymakers.
An article she published in 2017 looked at determinants of homelessness. The study showed that areas with high rates of poverty and high rents had the highest rates of unhoused people. That finding seems obvious, but it supports government decision making about how to allocate housing aid.
Hanratty's 2021 paper, Who Counts? delved even more closely into the government data. It asked a deeper question: What about children whose families are temporarily bunking with another family? Does their school performance suffer during that period, even if they return to their own home after that year? The answer was yes.
Hanratty points out that poverty and homelessness are not inevitable.
"Homelessness used to not exist very much. But in the early 1980s, a lot of things happened at once: they let people out of institutions, urban renewal projects got rid of inexpensive housing,” she said. ”We went from a society where homelessness wasn't normal to one where it was normal—in about one decade.”
In her research, Hanratty asks, "Why does homelessness happen today?" She looks at long-term trends such as industrialization and jobless rates, but also at shorter-term ones, such as housing programs and rental costs.
The importance of good data
From the beginning of her career, Hanratty says, one constant has been her efforts to glean meaning from data.
"It's really important to have data, for tracking what's going on and evaluating what programs work or don’t. It's very hard to get good data ... it's essential for effective public response," she said. "My thesis research looked at safety nets in the U.S. and Canada. That's a through line—the importance of data and quality analysis."
As a teacher and advisor, Hanratty has influenced dozens of students who are now professionals working across the country, teasing the answers to important questions from government data sources. Those databases may be publicly available, but they can be hard to use.
Some of Hanratty’s students got a leg up on that challenge through her ongoing partnership with Hennepin County's Office of Housing Stability. Nearly every year for the past decade, at least one group of her students has conducted research with that office for their final project, called a capstone.
"It's been really great because the students get access to data [from the county] they wouldn't ordinarily get," Hanratty said. "There's a whole community they get plugged into."
Students research 'real world problems'
Mark Legler (MPP ‘13) was one of those students. With Hanratty as his advisor, he wrote his final research paper on homeless young adults in Hennepin County, which involved collecting and analyzing data from the county and the Minneapolis Police Department.
"Professor Hanratty helped me understand how to decode large amounts of administrative data, and how to ask good questions," he said. "What's unique about her is she's very based in how data connects to what's being done on the ground. What's the actual data behind social policy? She connects the theory to the practice."
Legler’s career has come full circle since he worked on that paper, the final step toward completing his Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School in 2013. He interned for Hennepin County while still in school, and was hired full time immediately after graduating. "All my work has pretty much flowed from what I started at the Humphrey School," he said.
Legler is currently a principal planning analyst for Hennepin County Housing Stability, which offers a range of services for people who are homeless. In that position, Legler can submit research proposals that serve as capstone projects for Humphrey School students. He and others in his office have done so regularly—Legler estimates Hanratty's capstone teams have conducted eight to 10 projects for Hennepin County over the past dozen years.
"We bring in student groups, give them [access to our files and data] and present them with a problem that our practitioners at the county want answered," he said. These projects "enable grad students to work on real world problems."
Community partnership
Humphrey School Dean Nisha Botchwey praised Hanratty's ongoing work with Hennepin County as a prime example of the School's emphasis on community-based partnerships, one of the goals outlined in its strategic plan.
"Maria has combined the highest standards of rigorous research with work that is rooted in community needs, and provided our students the opportunity to develop their own capacity to lead the way in solving real-world challenges," said Botchwey. "We are so grateful for her contributions to the School and our students, and wish her the best in her well-deserved retirement."
As for her post-Humphrey School plans, Hanratty says she’s going to "take advantage" of her newfound free time. She enjoys the outdoors, and already has plans for long nature hikes in the coming weeks.
