282364
Evaluating a housing first approach in the hud-vash program
The VA has traditionally followed a “treatment-first” approach to permanent supportive housing – requiring treatment compliance as a perquisite to housing. In contrast, housing is not contingent upon treatment compliance in Housing First. To test the feasibility of Housing First in HUD-VASH, 14 VA sites participated in a demonstration project by administering a portion of HUD-VASH vouchers using a Housing First method. Additional resources and training established Housing First case management teams providing an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) level of supportive services. The remaining vouchers were administered via treatment as usual.
This presentation describes differences between the service approaches and compares the outcomes for Veterans housed via housing first and those housed via treatment as usual at the 14 sites. Outcomes include time to placement in housing, housing stability, and changes in service utilization (e.g. urgent care, inpatient stays). Lessons learned from this demonstration as well as the VA's ongoing effort to implement Housing First across all sites will be discussed.
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Describe the Housing First approach to rapidly housing chronically homeless Veterans.
Compare housing-related outcomes for Veterans who were housed using a housing first approach and those who were housed through a more traditional case management model.
Discuss the feasibility of Housing First as the new standard of care within the HUD-VASH program.
Keywords: Homelessness, Veterans' Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Project Coordinator for this evaluation and responsible for collecting and analyzing the data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.