Quasi-Experimental Study of the Effects of Homelessness Prevention

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims at determining the impact of providing temporary financial assistance to those at risk of homelessness on several important outcomes: homelessness, housing stability, and crime. The investigators will evaluate a Homelessness Prevention Call Center (HPCC) in a major U.S. city to determine how this assistance impacts these outcomes. This project will test whether those receiving temporary financial assistance are less likely to become homeless, move, or be arrested. The investigators will further examine whether the cost of reducing homelessness and improving other outcomes through financial assistance is outweighed by the benefits. Therefore, this research will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when allocating limited resources to reduce homelessness, putting resources towards the most effective programs. Moreover, this project will examine how this prevention service impacts different types of recipients, so the results will importantly inform service providers who run these call centers. Providers can also make more informed choices, targeting emergency funding to those most likely to benefit from them, which will improve the cost effectiveness of homelessness prevention programs. This project is the first quasi-experimental study to examine the impact of temporary financial assistance on homelessness, housing stability, and crime. While the gold standard in impact evaluation is a randomized controlled trial study, this is challenging in homeless policy studies because the population being served is both extremely vulnerable and highly mobile. These factors make keeping track of recipients of programming difficult and costly. Consequently, there is only limited information about the impact of homelessness prevention programs. Thus, this research fills an important gap in the literature on the effect of homelessness prevention programs. This project is possible because of the unique way in which the HPCC connects eligible callers with financial assistance, and because of a rich set of outcomes available through several different administrative data sources. This research will be informative not only to scholars who study housing programs, but also to policymakers and program managers who struggle to decide how best to distribute limited resources among prevention and treatment services to address the issue of homelessness.