By Marisa Kendall, The Mercury News, September 17, 2020
“New research by UCSF looks at Project Welcome Home, which was launched by Santa Clara County in 2015 to target the most challenging of the area’s chronically homeless residents — those who are continually in and out of jail, hospital emergency rooms and emergency psychiatric wards. The first-of-its-kind study found 86% of participants received housing and then stayed housed throughout nearly the entire duration of the study.
“The researchers say 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.
“For those who have been involved in Project Welcome Home since it began, the UCSF findings are a major validation. The study marks one of the first times this type of housing program has been studied using a control group — which makes the results much more significant.
“For Jennifer Loving [CEO of Destination: Home, an organization involved in Project Welcome Home], the data that sticks out most is the high percentage of people who were housed — and stayed housed. She hopes this new research compels other jurisdictions to adopt similar Housing First models that combine housing and services, but don’t put up high barriers to entry — such as requiring participants be sober or employed.”
Read the full article here. (~ 4 min.)