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Abstract #150884

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Jessie M. Gaeta, MD¹, Thomas Brigham¹, Lorna Simon, MA², and William H. Fisher, PhD². (1) Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, PO Box 120070, Boston, MA 02112, 617-367-6447, jgaeta@mhsa.net, (2) Center for Mental Health Services Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01545

Chronic homelessness is associated with myriad social and medical needs. A traditional approach to meeting these needs has coupled sheltering with treatment, and housing may eventually exist for those able to successfully comply with treatment programs. But many persons' disabilities limit them from entering housing that is contingent upon complex service plans, compliance-based housing, or the acknowledgment of certain labels or diagnoses. The Home and Healthy for Good Initiative (HHGI) is a Massachusetts pilot program providing chronically homeless people with stable, non-compliance-based housing in eight communities across the state. Tenants will live in leased, independent apartments. Case managers will offer life skills support in tenants' apartments and provide linkage to a range of services, including medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment. HHGI differs from traditional approaches in that ongoing tenancy is not conditional on acceptance of services, representing a shift toward “low-threshold” housing aimed at sustaining the tenancies. This presentation focuses on evaluation of the HHGI pilot's first year. Subjects include 130 individuals, all of whom were “chronically homeless” (i.e., unaccompanied persons with a disabling condition of long duration who were continuously homeless for a year or more, or had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years) and homeless at the time of selection. Self-report data collected at 3-month intervals are used to test the hypothesis that HHGI involvement will increase their length of time housed and decrease their episodes of emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and incarcerations compared to the previous year.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand challeneges associated with a statewide homelessness initiative
• Lean about outcomes from a low-threshold housing programs

Keywords: Homelessness, Housing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

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.

• Slides (pdf) or Handout