A groundbreaking study provides some of the strongest evidence yet of the powerful results of permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
Marisa Kendall shares news on a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) that reveals big successes for Project Welcome Home in housing chronically homeless residents of Santa Clara County.
"The first-of-its-kind study found 86% of participants received housing and then stayed housed throughout nearly the entire duration of the study," reports Kendall.
The UCSF research team says that these findings are groundbreaking "because they show that permanent supportive housing — which provides subsidized housing paired with counseling, mental health, addiction and other services — is helping the county’s most difficult cases," according to Kendall.
Project Welcome Home is a $19 million project that used a lottery system between 2015 and 2019 to provide housing for the chronically homeless. The participants in the program were offered counseling, addiction treatment, and other help from the nonprofit Abode Services.
The results of the study do come with the caveat that supportive housing, while effective in this program, is not a silver bullet. "Seventy of the 443 participants died during the course of the study, including 19% of those who received housing," according to Kendall, who also lists other caveats.
The source article includes a lot more details on Project Welcome Home, the study's methodologies and findings, and the implications of the study for homeless policies in the Bay Area and state of California.
FULL STORY: ‘It works.’ Groundbreaking data proves success of Santa Clara County homeless housing program
Managing Unsheltered Homelessness in San Jose
As California and other Western states await a SCOTUS ruling that will greatly affect how cities deal with tent encampments, a new stakeholder is causing big changes in how Northern California's largest city deals with its unsheltered population.
Eviction Prevention Program Sees Success in San Jose
Fighting a continued rise in homelessness in the region, a county program is successfully helping families avoid eviction.
Phoenix Takes a New Approach on Homelessness
Phoenix is centering housing—affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, and eviction protections—in a new planning framework designed to reduce the number of homeless people living on the streets of the city.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association