Area of Expertise: Research and Data Analysis

The CSH Supportive Housing Need tool provides communities with system‑level data on supportive housing needs across populations and systems, informing policy and program design. It also provides financial modeling at the state and local levels, allowing communities to estimate the capital, services, and operating costs to make data-driven decisions that demonstrate the effectiveness and value of sustaining supportive housing.

CSH partnered with Housing Narrative Lab to research and understand supportive housing narratives. We saw a gap in supportive housing specific narrative data and sought to understand awareness and perceptions of supportive housing among broad audiences.  These research findings will help the field coordinate and rally amplifiers around messaging that resonates and persuades.

Twenty years ago, CSH developed the FUSE (Frequently Used Systems Engagement) model to deliver a transformative solution that aligns housing, health, and justice systems to provide supportive housing and coordinated care. With a proven track record of success, FUSE has become a national model for cross-sector collaboration and data-driven intervention.

For 20 years, CSH has partnered with communities across the country to identify people with complex needs who frequently cycle through emergency systems—such as shelters, hospitals, and jails—and connect them to the housing and services they need to break the cycle, achieve stability, and thrive.

This brief highlights 4 communities that have successfully implemented FUSE. Partners share their lessons learned and the lasting impact that FUSE has had on systems, residents, and communities.

The growth of supportive housing over the last 30 years has been built on a foundation of research showing that it provides core benefits to people and communities. CSH compiled this list of selected literature on supportive housing from the last 20 years as a resource. Please review each source carefully to understand how to apply it to your work. Download a summary of outcomes in supportive housing including many of these listed sources by clicking here.

Supportive housing is a model of affordable housing that is designed specifically for people who need services to recover and thrive in their community. It serves people who are facing complex physical and behavioral health challenges while also experiencing homelessness, institutionalization, and/or housing instability. People in supportive housing pay 30% of their income toward rent and are accountable to a lease with all of the rights and responsibilities of tenancy.

In dozens of studies across the country over the last 20 years, supportive housing has proven to be an effective intervention that improves housing stability, reduces the use of expensive crisis care, and improves outcomes even for individuals with complex needs. This brief highlights key evidence for communities to consider as they work to meet the housing and support needs of all individuals and families.

As with the population of people experiencing homelessness, many people in supportive housing are dealing with substance use disorder. The stability that supportive housing provides supports many tenants in accessing substance use treatment and reducing or eliminating their use. This brief highlights key evidence related to supportive housing and substance use.

Supportive housing is a model of affordable housing that is designed specifically for people who need services to recover and thrive in their community. It serves people who are facing complex physical and behavioral health challenges while also experiencing homelessness, institutionalization, and/or housing instability. People in supportive housing pay 30% of their income toward rent and are accountable to a lease with all of the rights and responsibilities of tenancy.

In dozens of studies across the country over the last 20 years, supportive housing has proven to be an effective intervention that improves housing stability, reduces the use of expensive crisis care, and improves outcomes even for individuals with complex needs. This brief highlights key evidence for communities to consider as they work to meet the housing and support needs of all individuals and families.

This guide outlines five essential outcomes every successful supportive housing program should target, drawn from the larger CSH Quality Supportive Housing Standards. The Quality Standards provides a roadmap for creating and operating supportive housing that will best
achieve meaningful results. CSH encourages organizations to know their baseline performance regarding these outcomes and set ambitious goals to drive ongoing progress.

This guide enhances understanding of the health conditions experienced by individuals navigating housing instability. Utilizing existing data elements monitored at the intersection of health and housing allows professionals to reduce the administrative burden associated with new data tracking mechanisms while streamlining operations to improve health outcomes.

The New York City Frequent Users System Engagement program (FUSE) was part of the CSH’s Returning Home Initiative, a multi-year effort of public, inter-agency collaboration and investment that provided supportive housing for people cycling between incarceration and homelessness. NYC FUSE targeted persons with recurring homelessness and incarceration, most of whom challenged also by health, mental health, and/or substance use issues.

Columbia University researchers evaluated FUSE by comparing program participants with a closely matched comparison group of “frequent users.” This evaluation found that supportive housing significantly reduced participants’ (re)admissions to and time spent in jail and homeless shelters and their use of crisis healthcare services. These reductions resulted in significantly lower costs for publicly supported services, offsetting housing and other program costs. Results have inspired jurisdictions throughout the US to launch similar efforts.

Now, 10 years later, the FUSE Long Term Study presents a unique opportunity to examine stable housing as a critical component of successful community reentry, not simply in the short term but over people’s lives.

This data brief guides system providers on how to better coordinate data and services for families involved with systems, such as child welfare, homelessness response, behavioral health, education and justice.