Home for now: A mixed-methods evaluation of a short-term housing support program for homeless families Tatjana Meschede, Sara Chaganti * Institute on Assets and Social Policy, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, MS035, PO Box 549110, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA 1. Introduction The number of homeless families 1 has been growing and becoming increasingly visible since the early 1980s, when families first began to appear on the streets of U.S. cities (Burt, 1991; Rog & Buckner, 2007; Scho ¨n & Rein, 1995). Nationally, family homeless- ness increased sharply since the early ’80s, and has only leveled off and begun to decrease slightly since 2005 (Berg, 2012; Office of Community Planning and Development, 2013b). In contrast to this recent national trend, the number of homeless families in Massachusetts has continued to grow, increasing by 71% between 2007 and 2012 (Office of Community Planning and Development, 2013a). In Massachusetts and nationally, while a Housing First approach has gained more traction in the recent decade, the predominant approach to addressing family homelessness (as for other homeless groups) continues to be the Treatment First model utilizing emergency shelter and other programs that address service needs when individuals and families become homeless. Families who lose their homes in Massachusetts, a right-to- shelter state 2 , need to qualify for shelter assistance based on family income and assets, unlike single homeless persons (US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011). In Massachusetts, this assistance is called Emergency Assistance (EA), a package of services that includes shelter and case management directed at finding a permanent housing solution. In shelter, families are expected to access the resources they need to transition to market- rate housing. Research has demonstrated that exit from shelter into stable housing is mostly determined by access to permanent housing subsidies plus support services (Rog & Buckner, 2007). However, the number of permanent housing subsidies for low- income people has decreased in recent years (Curnan, 2010; Rice, 2014). In response to these trends, the state turned to a new Evaluation and Program Planning 52 (2015) 85–95 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 29 May 2013 Received in revised form 17 February 2015 Accepted 24 March 2015 Available online 9 April 2015 Keywords: Homeless families Short-term rental vouchers Housing Low-wage employment Mixed methods evaluation A B S T R A C T The use of short-term rental subsidy vouchers offers a new approach to addressing the housing needs of families facing homelessness. In Massachusetts, the Family Home pilot program placed homeless families in housing instead of shelter, providing two years of rental subsidy plus support services with the goal of enabling families to maintain market rate housing. This mixed-method case study complements staff and participant interview data with participant survey and administrative data to evaluate the implementation and short-term outcomes of Family Home in one region. Data point to improved family well-being in housing but also persistent barriers to achieving longer-term housing and economic stability. Of the families who had exited the program at the end of the study, one quarter were able to retain their housing at market rate, only 9% returned to shelter, and one in five moved in with families/friends. Lack of affordable housing in a high rental cost region and jobs that pay living wages were among the major reasons that families struggled to maintain housing. This research points to the need for integrating supportive services from the program’s start, including targeted workforce development, to plan for the end of the short-term rental subsidy. ß 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 781 736 4679; fax: +1 781 736 3925. E-mail address: schagant@brandeis.edu (S. Chaganti). 1 In Massachusetts, a homeless family is defined as a family with one or more dependent children under the age of 21, or a pregnant woman with no dependent children who is facing homelessness (Eligibility for Emergency Assistance (EA), 2012). It is worth noting that the federal definition is more restrictive: According to HUD, a homeless family is defined as one or more parents with one more children under the age of 16—a pregnant woman with no dependent children does not qualify (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing: Defining ‘Homeless’, 2011; United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2012). 2 ‘‘Right-to-shelter’’ means that any family that meets the eligibility criteria has a right to state-sponsored shelter, in an emergency shelter, a scattered-site apartment, or a motel. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Evaluation and Program Planning jo ur n al ho m ep ag e: www .els evier .c om /lo cat e/evalp r og p lan http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2015.03.009 0149-7189/ß 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.