Faculty Directory
Thomas Byrne
Associate Professor
Co-chair, Macro Specialized Practice
Thomas Byrne
MSW, PhD
Contact
Email: byrneta@bc.edu
ORCID
Education
- B.A., Boston College
- M.S.W., University of Pennsylvania
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Research Interests
Homelessness
Housing insecurity
Housing policy
Social policy analysis
Military veterans
Administrative data
Expertise
- Innovations in Research Methods
- Poverty
- Social Service Policies and Practice Effectiveness
- Social and Economic Inclusion
- Health
- Veterans and Military
- Social Determinants of Health
Biography
Thomas Byrne is an Associate Professor at the Boston College School of Social Work, having joined the faculty in 2025. He believes that access to safe, stable and decent housing is a fundamental prerequisite for a fulfilling and dignified life. This conviction motivates his scholarship, which focuses broadly on the causes, consequences, and policy solutions to housing insecurity and homelessness.
Dr. Byrne鈥檚 work primarily employs quantitative and quasi-experimental methods to explore policy-relevant questions, including how housing market dynamics and interventions shape community-level homelessness rates; the effectiveness of prevention-focused approaches; and the interrelationships between housing insecurity, housing assistance, and health. Through his affiliation with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Byrne has collaborated on numerous studies on efforts to prevent and end homelessness among military veterans.
Dr. Byrne鈥檚 work has been supported by numerous public and private sources, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
His research has been published in high-impact journals that span a number of fields, including The American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Social Service Review, and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His work has also been featured in local and national media outlets, including The Boston Globe, Time, NPR, and The New York Times.
Dr. Byrne currently serves on the editorial board for the journal Health Services Research, and is a member of the National Alliance to End Homelessness鈥� Research Advisory Council. At the local level, he is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Hearth, Inc., an organization dedicated to ending elder homelessness. He has also served on a number of committees that shape policy-responses to homelessness, including previous membership on the City of Boston鈥檚 Mayoral Advisory Council to End Homelessness.
In the classroom, Dr. Byrne aims to equip the next generation of social work practitioners with the policy analysis skills needed to drive real-world change, while also supporting doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows in their development as independent scholars.
Selected Publications
Chapman, A. B., Scharfstein, D., Byrne, T., Montgomery, A. E., Suo, Y., Effiong, A., ... & Nelson, R. E. (2025). The effect of a Veterans Affairs rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention program on long鈥恡erm housing instability. Health Services Research, 60, e14428.
Byrne, T., Doran, K. M., Kuhn, R., Metraux, S., Schretzman, M., Treglia, D., & Culhane, D. P. (2024). Persistence of a birth cohort effect in the US among the adult homeless population. JAMA Network Open, 7(12), e2452163-e2452163.
Spindle-Jackson, A., Byrne, T., & Collins, M. E. (2024). Extended foster care and homelessness: Assessing the impact of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act on rates of homelessness among youth. Children and Youth Services Review, 164, 107820.
Byrne, T., Miller, D. P., & Thomas, M. M. (2023). Impact of the monetary value of housing assistance on adult health outcomes. Health Services Research, 58(4), 894-913.
Treglia, D., Byrne, T., & Tamla Rai, V. (2023). Quantifying the impact of evictions and eviction filings on homelessness rates in the United States. Housing Policy Debate, 1-12.
Byrne, T. H., Henwood, B. F., & Orlando, A. W. (2021). A rising tide drowns unstable boats: How inequality creates homelessness. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 693(1), 28-45.
Glynn, C., Byrne, T. H., & Culhane, D. P. (2021). Inflection points in community-level homeless rates. The Annals of Applied Statistics, 15(2), 1037-1053.
Byrne, T., Montgomery, A. E., & Fargo, J. D. (2019). Predictive modeling of housing instability and homelessness in the Veterans Health Administration. Health services research, 54(1), 75-85.
Byrne, T., Treglia, D., Culhane, D. P., Kuhn, J., & Kane, V. (2016). Predictors of homelessness among families and single adults after exit from homelessness prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Programs: Evidence from the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. Housing Policy Debate, 26(1), 252-275.
Byrne, T., Fargo, J. D., Montgomery, A. E., Munley, E., & Culhane, D. P. (2014). The relationship between community investment in permanent supportive housing and chronic homelessness. Social Service Review, 88(2), 234-263.
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Selected Grants
Outcomes Among Washington State Veterans: Integrating Novel State Data into Analytic and Predictive Models of Housing Insecurity. Funder: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development.
Principal Investigator (2023-2025). (Co-PI-Daniel P. Miller, Ph.D). Housing assistance, housing affordability and inequality among children. Funder: William T. Grant Foundation.
Co-Investigator, (2021-2025) (PI: Richard Nelson, Ph.D.) Assessing an Initiative to Facilitate Long-Term Financial and Housing Stability in Vulnerable Veterans. Funder: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development.听
Principal Investigator (2017-2021). Longitudinal evaluation of housing and health outcomes of rapid rehousing participants. Funder: Pine Street Inn.
Principal Investigator (2019-2021) / Co-Principal Investigator (2017-2019). Evaluation and technical assistance for the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) initiative improving health outcomes through the coordination of supportive employment and housing services.
Principal Investigator (2017-2019). (Co-PI-Daniel P. Miller, Ph.D.) Does the value of housing assistance impact health outcomes? Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Principal Investigator (2015-2017). A data-based re-design of health care and housing for people who experience chronic homelessness. Funder: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. Recipient: Boston University. $147,363
Selected Appointments and Awards
2024 John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year Award, Health Services Research
2016 Special Recognition Awardee, Pioneer Institute Better GovernmentCompetition
2015 Finalist, Frank R. Breul Memorial prize for best paper in Social Service
Review.
2006 Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron of Massachusetts at Boston College
Professional Activities
Editorial Board, Health Services Research
Research Council Member, Research Advisory Council Member, National Alliance to End Homelessness
Board of Directors, Hearth, Inc. 听