Earlier this year, CSH and CASAColumbia released the summary of a joint paper as part of CASAHOPE (Housing Opportunities Program Evaluation) called Unlocking the Door: An Implementation Evaluation of Supportive Housing for Active Substance Users in New York City. Designed specifically for government and housing organization administrators who are considering creating similar programs, the paper presents the findings from our implementation evaluation of scattered-site supportive housing for New York/New York III’s Population E (500 chronically homeless single adults for whom substance use is a primary barrier to independent living).
The full report is now available for download.
The 12-month outcomes report finds high (88%) housing retention rates among active substance users at 12 months, and slight decreases in alcohol and drug use (11% and 5% respectively) at 12 months. Health and mental health remained stable, but did not worsen.
The implementation report found that 6 of the 9 providers contracted to provide this housing first supportive housing met or exceeded expectations of implementation success, while 3 had less consistent implementation. Interestingly, the outcomes report found that the 3 providers with inconsistent implementation had higher rates of discharges from housing than the other six providers.
Indicators of quality program implementation, as defined by the NY/NY III stakeholders and CSH's Seven Dimensions of Quality Supportive Housing, varied significantly across the nine programs, with implications for dissemination. Several lessons that might be useful to those working in the field are provided within the paper.
Today CASAColumbia has released the third project paper from CASAHOPE: Twelve-Month Tenant Outcomes for Persons Housed by NY/NY III’s Supportive Housing for Active Substance Users. Find it on their website.
