Housing Placement and Subsequent Days Homeless Among Formerly Homeless Adults With Mental Illness

Abstract

Although consumers more frequently prefer independent living, placement in staffed group housing resulted in somewhat fewer days homeless for some groups of consumers. Further experience of homelessness by formerly homeless mentally ill individuals may be reduced by providing effective substance abuse treatment and by paying special attention to consumers identified by clinicians to be at particular risk for housing loss.

Cost-effectiveness of Supported Housing for Homeless Persons With Mental Illness

“…4 Clinical services for this population have included (1) community outreach, 5 (2) case management, [6][7][8] and (3) housing assistance involving either time-limited halfway house treatment 9,10 or longerterm mainstream community housing with support. 11,12 Recently, experimental studies [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] have demonstrated superior outcomes for diverse interventions, typically described as supported housing programs in which case management and housing resources are combined, with benefits more often demonstrated for housing outcomes than for clinical status. 15 Although no paradigmatic standards for this approach have emerged, it received a strong endorsement from the congressionally appointed Bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission.…”

Public service reductions associated with placement of homeless persons with severe mental illness in supportive housing

“…Both Goldfinger et al (1999) and Dickey et al (1996) report on an initiative that provided two types of housing in Boston for homeless persons with mental illness: independent apartments with communitybased services and so-called evolving consumer households, where the tenants lived communally and with gradually diminishing levels of staff assistance. Three-quarters of the total subjects were stably housed at the end of the 18-month follow-up period.…”

“…Three-quarters of the total subjects were stably housed at the end of the 18-month follow-up period. The subjects in the group homes had fewer days homeless than the supported housing group, but otherwise no significant differences in housing outcomes or services use were found (Dickey et al 1996;Goldfinger et al 1999). …”

Teaching Medical Students and Residents about Homelessness: Complex, Evidence-Based, and Imperative

“…The same authors also noted that mental disorders and substance abuse can follow homelessness in young people with "bidirectional processes underlying the link between drug use and homelessness such that the presence of one may predispose an individual to the other" ( [11] p. 470). Similarly, effective substance abuse treatment may assist in reducing homelessness [12] and providing housing for those homeless with major mental disorders may benefit their cognitive functioning [13].…”