Eligible families had spent at least one week in an emergency homeless shelter, had at least one child age 15 or younger, and had sufficient income to pay their share of rent or had the ability to seek employment. They received subsidized housing in agency-controlled housing units, along with intensive case management. Families paid 30 percent of their unadjusted monthly income toward housing costs. Case management services provided by PBTH were mainly intended to help families find permanent housing but included financial management, help coordinating public benefits, and employment and training services. PBTH programs provided 6 to 24 months of housing assistance along with case management. The intervention took place in 12 locations in the United States: Alameda County, CA; Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Connecticut; Denver, CO; Honolulu, HI; Kansas City, MO; Louisville, KY; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; and Salt Lake City, UT.
Comparing the effectiveness of PBTH with the effectiveness of SUB indicates how much better PBTH meets participants’ needs than SUB does. The distinctive feature of PBTH is that families received temporary, subsidized housing in a project-based housing unit and case management for 6 to 24 months, whereas SUB provided permanent assistance to eligible families. This evaluation also studied Community-Based Rapid Rehousing.
PBTH was a housing initiative that gave families temporary, subsidized housing and case management, with the goal of helping them obtain permanent housing. This evaluation directly compared PBTH with a separate intervention, SUB, to better understand which of the two interventions might be more effective; the distinctive feature of PBTH is that families received temporary subsidized housing.