An Effort to Predict the Staying or Leaving Behavior of the Homeless with Serious Mental Illness in Permanent Supportive Housing

Client: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Summary


M. Davis and Company, Inc. was contracted to conduct the Predicting Staying in or Leaving Permanent Supported Housing that Serves Homeless People with Serious Mental Illness Study.

Process


This 36-month study examined the experience of some 943 residents of permanent supportive housing in Philadelphia. The study incorporated a multi-modal tracking strategy which included two components: (1) retrospective tracking of 943 mentally ill individuals who ever stayed in permanent housing, using an integrated longitudinal administrative database, and (2) prospective tracking via interviews of 100 leavers who left permanent housing and a matched sample of 96 stayers who were current permanent housing residents.

MDAC field interviewers conducted hundreds of in-person and telephone scripted discussions with study participants in various settings such as group homes, participant apartments, case manager offices and in prisons.

Results


The ability to merge Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data and administrative agency data in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made possible a viable strategy to track over time a highly elusive population, namely, formerly homeless people with mental illness who had left permanent supportive housing.

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