Stable shelter as foundation
Housing
Housing interventions provide or stabilize housing as a precondition for other outcomes — housing-first for chronic homelessness, rental assistance for at-risk families, supportive housing paired with services. The mechanism is foundational: many other interventions don't work without stable shelter.
4
Experiments
1
Policy areas
1994–2016
Year span
3 / 4
Positive
When it works
When housing instability is itself the binding constraint, or when it is co-causal with the target outcome (employment, child welfare, health). Housing-first programs durably house 75-85% of participants two years on, against 30-50% for treatment-as-usual.
Watch out for
Housing alone doesn't reliably reduce substance use or mental-illness symptoms; the case for housing-first rests on housing stability, health-system cost offsets, and dignity — not on addiction-recovery outcomes. Be clear about which outcomes the program is for.
Housing across policy areas
Housing· 4 experiments
- Positive
Denver Social Impact Bond — Supportive Housing for Chronic Homelessness
City of Denver / Colorado Coalition for the Homeless · Denver, CO, USA · 2016
Effect: Jail days: −40%; ED visits: −34%; housed nights: 83% vs. 37% at 24 months; net public cost reduction offset SIB payments
- Positive
Rapid Re-Housing vs. Transitional Housing
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority · Columbus, OH, United States · 2016
Effect: Rapid re-housing: 77% stably housed at 24 months vs. 64% for transitional; no significant difference in substance use or employment
- Positive
At Home / Chez Soi — Housing First
Mental Health Commission of Canada · Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montréal, Moncton, Canada · 2009
Effect: Housing stability: 73% of time housed (HF) vs. 32% (control) at 24 months; quality of life significantly improved; community functioning improved; mental health symptoms not significantly different; cost per additional day housed much lower than shelter system
- Mixed
Moving to Opportunity Housing Vouchers
US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) · Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York · 1994
Effect: Short-term adult effects modest; children who moved before age 13 showed +31% higher earnings as adults, +16 pp higher college attendance; mental and physical health improvements for adults