This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
What are 3 Washington counties doing to keep families off the streets?
Evaluating a Washington State initiative to end family homelessness
Challenge
The Homeless Families Systems Initiative is intended to reform homeless service systems in 3 counties in Washington State. Its goal is to reduce
- Time families spend homeless
- Returns to homelessness through a focus on getting families into housing as soon as possible
Westat is examining the role of systems change in these 3 counties in improving families’ residential stability and well-being.
Solution
We are examining how systems are changing and how they are finding alternatives to families entering the system, or matching them to assistance to get them back into permanent housing quickly.
We are also examining
- Whether race and ethnicity affect families’ access to and outcomes in housing
- Costs of serving a family after systems reform
We are using a rich set of mixed methods, including cohort family impact study design in which we are tracking all families for 18 months and a subset of families for 30 months.
Results
All 3 systems have shifted from “one size fits all” to offering a range of housing assistance.
Findings indicate that a “housing first” approach has led to greater numbers of families having quicker access to housing. This, in turn, leads to more days in permanent housing for families in the 18 months after entering the system despite a tightening housing market. Families do not return at any higher rate than families prior to the systems changing. Some families do experience, however, time unsheltered after systems reform, especially while waiting for housing.
Despite people of color being disproportionately affected by homelessness, no differences were found in outcomes for families.
Evaluation findings are highlighted in a white paper, A Decade of Innovation: Lessons from the Puget Sound Family Homelessness Initiative (PDF).
View Westat’s presentation on YouTube: Overview of the Family Homelessness Initiative
Focus Areas
Homelessness and Housing Social ServicesCapabilities
Evaluation and Mixed-Methods Research Impact Evaluation Implementation EvaluationSenior Expert Contact
Debra Rog
Vice President
-
Issue Brief
Young Children’s Consumption of 100% Fruit Juice by Racial-Ethnic Characteristics of Their MothersMarch 2023
Congress authorized the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) as a pilot program in 1972 and made WIC permanent in 1974.…
-
Perspective
CDISC Conformance and Compliance: So Many Resources, So Little Time!February 2023
Implementing the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards required for data management, programming, documentation, and eCTD data submission can be challenging for many reasons…
-
Expert Interview
How Will the Marine Corps Integrate Men and Women at Recruit Training?January 2023
Marine Corps recruit training is every bit as intense as it looks. Each morning starts hours before sunrise with a chorus of screaming drill instructors…