Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

Thanks to our colleagues at the Corporation for Supportive Housing, we're pleased to share highlights from four important new evaluations released within the past week that demonstrate the benefits to our health network and other public systems when permanent affordable housing along with services are made available to vulnerable populations. With all of this evidence, the only question remaining is how we can make these programs more widely available so that we can attain better health outcomes and reduce the reliance on more costly emergency, inpatient, and long-term care services. To help jumpstart that discussion, read CSH's working draft on Health Policy Reform.

Minnesota: Supportive Housing Improves Lives of Formerly Homeless Individuals and Families

An evaluation of the Minnesota Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot, conducted by the National Center on Family Homelessness for Hearth Connection, found that supportive housing significantly improved residential stability and decreased mental health symptoms and alcohol and drug use. The Pilot engaged people who had the most complex needs and the longest histories of homelessness, and who had not been helped by other programs. The evaluators concluded the Pilot had a small impact on thecost of mainstream public services, and there was a desirable shift fromexpensive inpatient mental health and chemical dependency services, detox, and prison to more routine and preventative health care services. For many Pilot participants, improved health care services had dramatic –and in some cases lifesaving – results, as serious unaddressed medical problems were finally treated.

Read more: The Minnesota Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot Evaluation Summary

Illinois: Supportive Housing Means Less Time in Mental Health, Nursing Homes, Prisons

Affordable housing that provides on-site services for people who are homeless, have a mental illness, and other vulnerable populations could dramatically reduce the use and cost of expensive public services such as state prisons, mental health facilities andnursing homes, according to a new report released by the Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty (MAIP), the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA), and CSH. The study found that the cost of public services incurred by participating supportive housing residents in Illinois- such as inpatient mental health care, nursing homes, and criminal justice -  decreased by 39 percent.  The study tracked the use of public services for a sample of 177 individuals two years before and two years after entering supportive housing. This change in the use of expensive public services yielded a total overall cost savings of more than $850,000– an average savings of $2,400 per year for each resident. Data collected came from Medicaid, mental health hospitals, substance use treatment, prisons, and various county jails and hospitals. 

Read more: Supportive Housing in Illinois: A Wise Investment.

Read more: Press Release Announcing Results of Study.

Massachusetts: Housing First Reduces Institutional Costs Across the Board

The State of Massachusetts Office of Medicaid tracked the first 97 participants in the Home and HealthyFor Good pilot program, a “Housing First” initiative, and concluded that placing chronically homeless people in permanent housing savesmoney on institutional care. Housing First recognizes the wisdom, and maximizes the benefits, of placing homeless people in stable environments. The results from the Home and Healthy for Good program are impressive. Massachusetts concluded that Medicaid costs dropped 67 percent among program participants. Even when the evaluators factored in the costs of the HousingFirst program, including intensive supportive services to help participants achieve stability, care was less costly by nearly $9,000 per person. AsDr. Jesse Gaeta from the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance notes: “We can't afford not to house this group of people.” The Boston Globe, which praises the program, concludes: “Proponents of thehousing-first policy always knew it was compassionate. Now they can proveit is a bargain.”

Read more: Boston Globe Editorial of March 29, 2009.

Read more: Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance Website.

Washington State: Study in JAMA Finds Housing First Approach Leads to Savings

A study of a supportive housing program in Seattle, Washington published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) says supportive housing is saving taxpayers more than $4 million a year and helping people with severe alcohol problems reduce their alcohol consumption without imposing preconditions on access to shelter. The findings reaffirm the “Housing First” strategy, which embraces the policy of providing permanent homes with supportive services instead of requiring thosein need to stop drinking as a condition for housing. Researchers from theUniversity of Washington maintain that placing homeless chronic inebriates in a safe living situation has helped some residents decrease their drinking or quit. The study followed 95 chronic inebriates before and after they moved into an apartment building in downtown Seattle, as well as a control group on the waiting list. Researchers found the median monthly cost to taxpayers was $4,066 when each resident lived on the street. Six monthsafter residents moved into supportive housing, that figure dropped to $1,492 per person. Even when the cost of apartments and support services wereadded, they concluded “Housing First” saves money.

Read more: www.jama.ama-assn.org.

Listen:  For Homeless, A Home May Be The Best Rehab (NPR).

Other Studies: Supportive Housing is Cost-Effective, Produces Better Outcomes

CSH offers access to other important studies that provide additional data and details on how supportive housing reduces costs associated with institutional care and public services, and produces better outcomes for residents and communities. The following matrix isdesigned to summarize some of the more notable studies through the years.

Read more: CSH Matrix on Supportive Housing Studies