- Log in to post comments
Subgroups
After a family with at least one child age 15 or younger had remained in an emergency homeless shelter for seven days, the evaluation team randomly assigned them to the one of four possible intervention conditions. This review focuses on assignment to CBRR versus usual care. Although the evaluation team intended to randomly assign families to all intervention conditions with an equal probability, availability of slots, site-level implementation limitations, and unique eligibility requirements for families resulted in most families being randomly assigned to a restricted set of intervention conditions (474 of 2,282 families were randomly assigned across all four intervention options; most families—1,544—had three options available to them). This resulted in differing probabilities of assignment, depending on which set of interventions was available to each family. Before random assignment, the evaluation team gathered informed consent, determined eligibility for available intervention slots, and conducted a baseline survey. Pairwise contrasts (in this review, CBRR relative to usual care) were only estimated on the sample of families who were eligible for both intervention conditions and randomized to one of them.
September 2010 to December 2014
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
The following characteristics applied to participants who were eligible for both the CBRR and usual care intervention conditions, and who were assigned to either: the average age of the head of household was about 31 at baseline, and 93 percent were female. About 47 percent were Black, 20 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 19 percent were White, non-Hispanic, and 15 percent were another race or multiple races or ethnicities. Twenty-five percent of eligible families were headed by married parents, and all families had at least one child younger than 15 at baseline. Thirty-four percent of the baseline sample heads of household had no high school diploma or GED, and only 20 percent were employed at baseline.
Community-based nonprofit agencies and city government agencies
CBRR used funding from the rapid rehousing component of the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. Funding for this program was first included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
After spending at least seven days in an emergency homeless shelter, families with at least one child age 15 or younger were assigned to CBRR to receive time-limited rental assistance and support services to help locate housing. They also received case management referrals to coordinate other services. CBRR typically provided about 7 to 8 months of rental assistance to help families afford stable housing, but families could receive assistance for up to 18 months. CBRR programs were encouraged to provide rental assistance as rapidly as possible. As a result, these programs conducted recertification every three months to assess families' needs and ability to continue to meet housing choice voucher eligibility standards. Most CBRR participants (84 percent) received supportive services to assist with upfront costs (for example, security deposits or moving costs). CBRR programs also provided limited case management services that linked participants to supports for increasing self-sufficiency (for example, financial education or public benefits). Case managers also helped with the housing search and placement assistance.
After spending at least seven days in an emergency homeless shelter, families with at least one child age 15 or younger who were assigned to the usual care comparison condition did not receive special referrals to any housing assistance or supportive services programs. They also did not receive any additional assistance beyond what was typically provided in emergency homeless shelters. The evaluation team asked emergency shelter staff not to intentionally guide usual care condition families to the intervention programs (including CBRR), but if usual care families found their way into the intervention conditions, they were not denied services. Because emergency shelters are not uniformly regulated, the experiences of usual care participants in the shelters after random assignment were highly variable.
None
Participants in the CBRR condition received temporary housing subsidies and related services for seven months, on average.
CBRR programs typically received funding from the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Family Options Study took place in 12 sites across 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. CBRR providers were community-based nonprofit agencies except in three locations, where city government agencies provided these services.
Program use, housing stability, family preservation, and adult well-being