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The intervention group included households receiving Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) that enrolled in Compass FSS programs from January 2011 to March 2015 and that had less than one year of missing data throughout the study period. Intervention households were located in Lynn and Cambridge, MA. Researchers used propensity score matching to create a comparison group of similar households receiving HCVs from similar public housing authorities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Rhode Island. Comparison public housing authorities were identified based on the following similar characteristics: employment; average income; poverty level; share of population that was Hispanic, Black, older than age 65, single adult families with a child, and speaking English at home; and population density. Within these public housing authorities, researchers identified three comparison households for each intervention household in Compass FSS using propensity score matching.
Families who enrolled from January 2011 to March 2015 were included in the study. Outcomes were examined through March 2016.
Program participants were heads of household who received HCVs. On average, participants in the intervention and comparison groups were 40 years old and had participated in the voucher program for 8 years. Less than one-fifth of participants in each group received cash assistance benefits at the start of services (12 percent in the intervention group and 16 percent in the comparison group).
Compass Working Group (Compass) is a nonprofit that implemented the program.
In the intervention group, heads of households receiving HCVs worked with case managers to set goals and build financial capacity. Families paid 30 percent of any increases in earnings toward rent. This increase in rent was credited to an escrow account. If the head of household was employed and completed his or her goals, and if no family members had received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families for at least 12 months, the family received the amount in their escrow account. If they exited the program without completing their goals, they did not receive the funds. Participants in Cambridge received half of the escrow account, rather than the full amount. Typically, goals had to be completed within five years.
Individuals in the comparison group received HCVs from other public housing authorities.
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The study took place at public housing agencies in Lynn and Cambridge, MA.
FICO credit scores; SSI, SSDI, Social Security, and pension receipt; Sources of income other than earnings, welfare benefit receipt, or SSI, SSDI, Social Security, or pension receipt