PHILADELPHIA -- Dennis Culhane, professor of social welfare policy at the University of Pennsylvania, has received the John W. Macy Award from the National Alliance to End Homelessness for his individual leadership.

Culhane won the award for his research on the causes of homelessness and for his advocacy of possible solutions. His efforts have had a profound effect on the way homelessness is approached by policy-makers nationwide, according to the Alliance. He has spurred the development of programs designed to solve homelessness by tracking the use of homelessness systems.

" Dennis is a leading authority in the battle to end homelessness. We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber on our faculty, and we are thrilled that his ground-breaking work has been recognized by a premier national organization," said Richard Gelles, dean of the School of Social Work at Penn. "He is truly worthy of such an honor."

Culhane's recent work showed that homelessness has tremendous social and economic costs. In 2001, he published a landmark study that tabulated the cost of housing the mentally-ill homeless versus simply providing them with public services and found the cost to be roughly the same.

He is currently integrating Philadelphia property, neighborhood and human-services data to shed light on many of the key policy issues that contribute to homelessness.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness is committed to the ideal that no American should have to be homeless. The Alliance provides programs, advocacy and education to lead our country towards solving homelessness. Previous award recipients include former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, Tipper Gore and affordable housing researcher Cushing Dolbeare.

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