Applying the Housing First approach to single-site permanent supportive housing

ABSTRACT

This study explored how the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program applies Housing First principles in the context of ten single-site programs. Focus group discussions with 64 HUD-VASH staff and community partners explored how the programs were influenced by Housing First principles and specific strategies to implement these principles in a single-site setting. Focus group respondents described resourceful ways that the principles of Housing First were implemented in their programs specifically related to (1) housing choice and structure, (2) separation of housing and services, (3) service philosophy, and (4) service array. Several of the Housing First domains cite the importance of integrated housing and the provision of services off-site; it was of particular interest to learn how single-site programs address these issues logistically. Lessons learned from this study include the importance of leveraging the independent yet overlapping tasks of case management and property management to ensure functional – if not geographic – separation of housing and services; maintaining staff on-site to address Veterans’ needs; working with community service organizations to complement the array of service available to residents; and housing single-site programs in mixed-use buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• Veterans
• permanent supportive housing
• single-site
• housing first

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Ann Elizabeth Montgomery is an investigator at the VA National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans and the Birmingham VA Medical Center and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Her research focuses on identifying Veterans at risk of housing instability and interventions to prevent and end homelessness.

Dr. Sonya Gabrielian is a psychiatrist and investigator with the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Services Research & Development Center of Innovation and the VISN 22 Mental Illness Research and Educational Center, as well as an affiliated researcher with the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans. Her research focuses on improving functional outcomes for Veterans engaged in VA housing services.

Ms. Meagan Cusack is a project manager with the VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), where she coordinates and conducts mixed methods research integrating Veteran and stakeholder voices with secondary data.

Dr. Erika L. Austin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Her research focuses on interventions to address homelessness among Veterans and studies using a mixed methods approach.

Dr. Stefan G. Kertesz is a physician and health services researcher at the Birmingham VA Medical Center and studies homelessness and housing interventions related to Housing First and Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams.

Ms. Jesse Vazzano is the National Director of the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.

ORCID

Meagan Cusack http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2622-4566

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans.