Research and Evaluation:
Using Evidence to Advance Systems Change

Whether its performing a point-in-time count, tracking the level of public investment, or showing the impact of supportive housing on area property values, using sound evidence is an important feature of engaging and changing public systems.

This page offers a cross-section of research and evaluation materials on the value, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of supportive housing.  These materials include guidebooks, cost effectiveness studies, and significant evaluations.
         
Do-It-Yourself Cost Study: Assessing Public Costs Before and After Permanent Supportive Housing
Stakeholders in many cities and counties have expressed interest in conducting their own cost snalysis such as the one done for the New York/New York Initiative which provided powerful evidence of supportive housing's ability to produce outcomes that policy makers want.  This guide lays out the issues that any jurisdiction needs to think about before committing itself to that endeavor.

Estimating the Need: Projecting from Point-in-Time to Annual Estimates of the Number of Homeless People in a Community and Using this Information to Plan for Permanent Supportive Housing
This guide is meant to help communities that want or need to do three different but related things: calculate an expected number of homeless people over a year's time when you only have data from a point-in-time sount; use both PIT information and projections to annual levels of homelessness to figure out how many chronically homeless people you are likely to have , now and in the future; and plan and develop appropriate levels of permanent supportive housing to prevent and end long-term homelessness.

Using RIMS II to Estimate the Economic Impact of Supportive Housing
CSH contracted with Bay Area Economics (BAE) to develop this guide for using RIMS II (Regional Industrial Multiplier System II) to estimate the economic impact of developing supportive housing.  This guide specifically addresses the needs of supportive housing advocates.  It also provides detailed instructions on using the RIMS II Viewer software.

Costs of Service Homeless Individuals in Nine Cities
This chart book, prepared by The Lewin Group, compares the daily cost of supportive housing with selected other settings in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York City, Columbus (OH), chicago, Boston, Seattle and Phoenix.  The results show that a day in supportive housing costs significantly less than a day in a shelter, jail, or a psychiatric hospital.  For example, in New Yrok City, a day of supportive housing costs $31, compared to a day in jail $165, a psychiatric hospital $467, or community hosptial $1,185.  Definitions, methodology, and sources are also included.

New York/New York Agreement Cost Study: The Impact of Supportive Housing on Services Use for Homeless Mentally Ill Individuals
A summary of the impact of supportive housing for homeless persons with severe mental illness on the utilization of public health, corrections and emergency shelter systems.  The initiative was conducted by Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux and Trevor Hadley Center for Mental Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania.

The Network: Health, Housing and Integrated Services: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
This report summarizes the principles, policies, procedures and practices used by housing and service providers that have proven to be effective in serving Health, Housing and Integrated Services tenants where they live.  (HHISN is an initiative of the CSH California Program)

Family Permanent Supportive Housing - Preliminary Research on Family Characteristics, Program Models and Outcomes
Since the early 1980's, the face of homelessness has changed, with families forming an increasing protion of the overall homeless population.  Estimates from the only nationally representative study to date (Burt et. al, 1999) indicate that over 30% of the homeless population lives in families with children.  This report takes the findings from 12 supportive housing programs that serve famillies.  The data sets are preliminary but are among the first to examine the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing for families and the clients they serve.

Supportive Housing for Families Evaluation: Accomplishments and Lessons Learned
This study, conducted by Philliber Research Associates, evaluates five family permanent housing programs - three in the San Francisco Bay Area and two in Minnesota.  The report describes the program models, profiles the families served, and provides information on outcomes including housing retention, increases in employment and income, and family reunification.

2002 Connecticut Supportive Housing Demonstration Program Evaluation Report
This three part evaluation of the Statewide Connecticut Demonstration
Program first analyzes data derived from surveys that were completed by tenants, property managers, and social services providers.  It also analyzes data regarding the use of social services by the tenants and the costs of Medicaid services rendered.  The second section of the evaulation evaluates the financial stability of the individual projects.  The final section analyzes the sales values of commercial properties in the projects' neighborhood to determine if property values have increased or decreased from the time before the projects were developed through March 1, 2002.