Housing Assistance for Households Experiencing Homelessness

Many economic and housing cost factors contribute to increasing housing risk and homelessness. A growing number of households are spending more than 50% of their income for housing, the U.S poverty rate is growing and family homelessness increased by 1.4% from 2011 to 2012. There is an urgent need for policy research evidence on Rapid Re-Housing (RRH), time-limited housing assistance, one of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) top strategies for ending homelessness. Assessing the impacts of the RRH program funded by the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) from 2009--2012 in the City of Philadelphia , this dissertation addressed two research questions:;1) Does Rapid Re-Housing improve housing stability for formerly homeless households by decreasing the risk of a return to homelessness?;2) Did HPRP's RRH policy experience propel a nationwide shift in the homeless assistance response system, away from shelter-centric towards housing-centric service approaches?;This research analyzed data from all households entering homeless shelters between October 2009 and May 2012 in Philadelphia. Data analysis included a propensity score match to create a comparable comparison group to the treatment group of all households that entered the City's RRH program; 2,455 households were included in the study. Return to homelessness outcomes were assessed for both treatment and control groups one and two years after exiting RRH, or exiting shelter. RRH resulted in a 42% decrease in the risk of a return to homelessness.;An instrumental variable analysis was also performed to verify these findings, and the two-stage least regression results indicated a 25% decrease in the risk of a return to homelessness for RRH households. The effect size decreased with the sensitivity of each analysis, illustrating unobserved characteristics of people enrolled in RRH made them less likely to return to homelessness. Overall, these analyses show the odds of returning to homelessness are higher for households that do not receive RRH compared to similar households that do receive RRH.;Results from the policy analysis indicate that HPRP did precipitate RRH policy learning across the country, expanding the Housing First experience of RRH.