Matthew Fowle

Matt Fowle’s research interests focus on the role of public policies and institutions in shaping housing security among low-income households. His dissertation uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the causes, reproduction, and consequences of racial inequality in homelessness. The first part of this work investigates the role of social institutions in concentrating the socio-economic conditions that make communities of color disproportionately vulnerable to homelessness. The second part of this work examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting low-income households' housing security and mortality among people experiencing homelessness. Other collaborative projects focus on the housing impacts of interventions that reduce or eliminate criminal justice debt for low-income individuals.

Matt entered the Evans School Ph.D. program in Public Policy & Management in 2017. Prior to joining the program, he earned an MPA from the Evans School. During this time, he worked for a local philanthropic organization investing in youth-focused institutions and served as a research assistant for the Evans Policy Analysis Research Group (EPAR) conducting research on behalf of the Gates Foundation. While living in the UK he worked as an assistant policy officer for local government and as a human rights advocate for a nonprofit organization. Matt is a co-founder of HomelessDeathsCount.org, a community research project to collect nationwide data on mortality among people experiencing homelessness.