• Defining and Funding the Support in Permanent Supportive Housing: Recommendations from Health Centers Serving Homeless People (2008), prepared by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council for the Corporation for Supportive Housing – describes the involvement of Federally Qualified Health Centers in permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people with disabling conditions; specifies PSH services and service models most likely to promote long-term stability, recovery and improved health; and proposes more adequate and reliable funding mechanisms to sustain these services. To read the full report, click here.


• HEALTH CARE & PUBLIC SERVICE USE & COSTS BEFORE & AFTER PROVISION OF HOUSING FOR CHRONICALLY HOMELESS PERSONS WITH SEVERE ALCOHOL PROBLEMS Chronically homleless individuals with severe alcohol problems often have multiple medical and psychiatric problems and use costly health and criminal justice services at high rates. This study evaluates the association of a Housing First approach for chronically homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems with health care use and costs. In conclusion, the Housing First program was associated with a relative decrease in costs after six moths. These benefits increased to the extent that participants were retained in housing longer. JAMA | April 1, 2009 | Vol. 301, No. 13 | pp. 1349 – 1357


• Criminal Activity and Substance Abuse Study Central City Concern: Mentor and ADFC Housing Programs (2008) - Results from this study of 87 recipients of drug treatment services enrolled in the Mentor and Alcohol Drug Free Communities (ADFC) programs through Central City Concern in Portland, Oregon demonstrated a 95% reduction in drug use and a 93% reduction in criminal activity post-treatment relative to pre-treatment levels.


• Hilton Foundation Project to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness in Los Angeles: Changes in Homelessness, Supportive Housing, and Tenant Characteristics Since 2005 (2008), Martha R. Burt, Ph.D., Urban Institute, prepared for the Corporation for Supportive Housing - reports changes since 2005 in numbers of people homeless in Los Angeles (total, chronic, and disabled), who is being served by permanent supportive housing (single adults, families, as well as where they came from, for example, street or shelter), and what government agencies and funding streams have done since the initial evaluation report.


• HUD/HHS/VA Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness (CICH) National Performance Outcomes Assessment, Preliminary Client Outcomes Report (February 2007), Alvin S. Mares, Ph.D., M.S.W. and Robert A. Rosenheck, M.D. - reports the use of CICH services and client outcomes at 11 sites. Preliminary findings suggest that a diverse population of chronically homeless adults with disabling conditions can successfully be housed and can maintain their housing when provided with a mix of permanent housing, intensive case management, and access to primary physical health services, mental health services, and substance abuse treatment.


• The Applicability of Housing First Models to Homeless Persons with Serious Mental Illness (2007), Department of Housing and Urban Development – presents findings from an exploratory study of the Housing First approach of providing permanent supportive housing to single, homeless adults with mental illness and co-occurring substance-related disorders, and provides a basic description of several programs that represent a Housing First model.


• Denver Housing First Collaborative Cost Benefit Analysis and Program Outcomes Report (Dec. 2006)– demonstrates improved health status of chronically homeless individuals and reduced costs of emergency room care, hospitalizations, incarceration and detox during the first 2 years of the Denver Housing First Collaborative, a permanent supportive housing initiative created by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.


• Impact of Permanent Supportive Housing on the Use of Acute Care Health Services by Homeless Adults (2006) – results of a San Francisco study which found that providing permanent supportive housing to homeless people with psychiatric and substance use disorders reduced their use of costly hospital emergency department and inpatient services.


• Family Permanent Supportive Housing-Preliminary Research on Family Characteristics, Program Models, and Outcomes (2006) – findings from 12 supportive housing programs that serve families, one of the first empirical studies to examine the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing for families and characteristics of the clients served.


• Supportive Housing Helps Break Cycle of Homelessness (Dec. 2003), HCH Clinicians’ Network – describes the broad range of housing options linked to a variety of supportive services for formerly homeless people, which have been demonstrated to reduce shelter use, emergency and inpatient care, and incarceration.

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• PSH Issue Brief – What is Permanent Supportive Housing? Why Should Health Centers Care?


• Cost Benefits to Permanent Supportive Housing for Homeless Persons Living with HIV/AIDS & Other Chronic Illnesses - presentation and material from the 2008 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference workshop


• Financing Supportive Housing Services Sources – information about the range of financing options for the services provided to supportive housing residents, compiled by the Corporation for Supportive Housing


• Housing is HIV Prevention and Health Care - findings from the National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit Series convened by the National AIDS Housing Coalition in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health


• Permanent Supportive Housing Services: Lessons Learned and Promising Practices PowerPoint presentations, handouts and audio file from the 2008 National Health Care for the Homeless Policy Symposium workshop


• Providing Health Care in Permanent Supportive Housing - presentation by John Parvensky, Director, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver, CO, at the 2007 National HCH Conference


• SSI/SSDI, SOAR and Supportive Housing: Tools in Recovery - presentation by Debi Dennis and Yvonne Perret for a CSH Hot Topics call, May 2007

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• Housing and Homelessness – policy statement of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council: recommends permanent supportive housing (PSH) to provide our most vulnerable neighbors with secure housing and sufficient supportive services.


• Medicaid, SCHIP & Homelessness - policy statement of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council: recommends comprehensive Medicaid benefits including services in permanent supportive housing.

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• Permanent Supportive Housing Working Group - first convened in 2007 by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council to explore ways to increase the capacity of Federally Qualified Health Centers to participate in permanent supportive housing. Representatives of the following agencies meet at least quarterly to discuss issues of concern and promising practices in the delivery of supportive services to formerly homeless persons residing in permanent housing:
       Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Boston, MA
       Center for Social Innovation, Newton Centre, MA
       Central City Concern, Portland, OR
       Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver, CO
       Common Ground, New York, NY
       Corporation for Supportive Housing
       Duffy Health Center, Hyannis, MA
       Gregory House Programs, Hawaii's Statewide HIV/AIDS Housing Program
       Health Care for the Homeless Network, Seattle, WA
       Heartland Health Outreach, Inc., Chicago, IL
       Homeless Outreach & Advocacy Project, Worcester, MA
       Homeless Persons' Health Project, Santa Cruz, CA
       Housing and Urban Health, Dept. of Public Health, San Francisco, CA
       LifeLong Medical Care, Inc., Berkeley, CA
       National AIDS Housing Coalition
       National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
       Partnership Health Center, Missoula, MT
       Philadelphia Health Management Corp., Philadelphia, PA
       Project Renewal Health Services, New York, NY
       Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Centers, Seattle, WA
       Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services, Atlanta, GA
       Skid Row Homeless Health Care Initiative, Los Angeles, CA
       United Homeless Healthcare Partners (UHHP), Los Angeles, CA

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