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To reduce rates of homelessness, recent efforts have been directed toward developing non-conditional supported housing programs that prioritize the delivery of housing support and individual services, without tenancy conditions (i.e. maintaining sobriety and adhering to mental health treatment). As promising as these programs are, findings generally show that while housing stability is improved, other individual outcomes remain largely unchanged. No review to date has synthesized the collective evidence base of non-conditional housing programs, rather the focus has been on specific programs of delivery (e.g. Housing First) or on specific population groups (e.g. those with mental illness). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which non-conditional housing interventions improve housing and well-being outcomes for all persons.

A systematic search of the literature was conducted for randomized controlled studies that evaluated the effectiveness of a non-conditional housing intervention in improving housing and health outcomes among any participant group.

A total of 31 studies were included in this review. Non-conditional supported housing programs were found to be most effective in improving housing stability as compared to health and well-being outcomes. Policymakers should consider this when developing non-conditional supported housing programs and ensure that housing and other health-related outcomes are also mutually supported.

This is the first review, to the authors’ knowledge, to synthesize the collective impact of all non-conditional supported housing programs. The current findings may inform the (re)design and implementation of supported housing models to prioritize the health and well-being of residents.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a number of housing policies to address these two issues and meet the needs of Saudi families, in accordance with their social and economic characteristics.

The paper first provides a review of the housing policies in Saudi Arabia, highlights some of the global experiences in the field of housing and reviews the best lessons learned from those experiences. Then, the paper analyses the reality of the housing sector in Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) and discusses the most important results reached.

Finally, and based on the main findings, the paper puts forward a set of policies and actions recommended to improve housing sector in DMA.

The paper analyses the reality of the housing in DMA.

The purpose of this paper is to provide rationale, methodological guidance and clarity in the use of case study designs and theory driven approaches to evaluation of interventions to end homelessness.

Using an evaluation of a transitional shelter program aiming to support permanent exits from homelessness as an example, the authors show how case study designs and theory driven evaluation is well suited to the study of the effectiveness of homelessness interventions within the broader socio-political and economic context in which they are being implemented.

Taking account of the context as part of program evaluation and research on homelessness interventions moves away from blaming programs and individuals for systemic failures to better understanding of how the context influences successes and failures. Case study designs are particularly useful for studying implementation and the context which influences program outcomes. Theory driven evaluations and the use of realist evaluation as an approach can provide a broader understanding of how homelessness interventions work particularly for whom and under what conditions. These methodological and theoretical approaches provide a consistent strategy for evaluating programs aimed at ending homelessness.

There is a need for greater capacity in the homelessness sector to apply approaches to evaluation that take into account the broader socio-political and economic context in which programs are being implemented. Through the use of a case example, the authors provide guidance for application of case study design and theory driven approaches as a strategy for approaches programs aimed at ending homelessness.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a Housing Eligibility Assessment Scoring Method (HEASM) for low-income Urgent Repair Programs (URPs).

In order to develop a practical HEASM that incorporates the prevailing eligibility assessment criteria for low-income URPs, a case study research approach was adopted. Emergent themes and patterns in predominant eligibility assessment criteria and methods are derived from program documents utilized by a successful State Urgent Repair Program (SURP) and its 42 Community Partners operating in the Southeastern region of the USA. Coupled with interviews and the expert analysis of SURP staff, the quantitative analysis of 11,414 repaired homes and literature reviews were used to categorize predominant eligible housing repairs and costs.

The five key eligibility assessment criteria categories that emerged from the data analysis are: location, owner-occupancy, family needs, housing repair, and estimated repair costs. The framework of the proposed HEASM is guided by these five categories.

URP decision makers are provided with a simple, practical, and objective eligibility assessment method that can be easily modified to accommodate the unique eligibility criteria and local program conditions. This method should improve the eligibility assessment, prioritization, and the eventual selection of qualifying applicants. Consequently, the capacity of URPs to provide funding to their targeted populations with the most critical needs would be enhanced. Insights could drive the impetus to modify existing URP.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nation's first hospital to housing for homeless individuals. The Chicago Housing for Health Partnership (CHHP), a Housing First and Harm Reduction model, creates a new comprehensive system of health care, housing and supportive services.

The researchers conducted a year long process evaluation of the housing program using a multi‐method approach, which involved qualitative interviews, focus groups, document analysis and observations. The paper examined the CHHP system at three different levels (the administrative, service provision and the client levels).

The study allowed the organizational participants the ability to better understand their program by visually modeling the system for the first time and documenting its effectiveness. It also furthered the understanding of how and why the housing first model is best accompanied by a harm reduction approach. Finally, the paper was able to show how and why organizational system design is important in creating the most effective environment in which programs have a real impact.

The authors were able to help CHHP program leaders conduct strategic planning and to present their program as an effective model future funding agencies and to policy makers. CHHP has incorporated the recommendations into their permanent model. In addition, the CHHP leadership, in a network with other Housing First advocates, has disseminated the findings at national conferences and networking meetings. The authors' relationship with CHHP will continue with the design of a second stage research strategy in order to continue research on Harm Reduction Housing and policy advocacy.

Recently, Managed Alcohol Programs (MAPs have emerged as an alcohol harm reduction model for those living with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) and experiencing homelessness. There is still a lack of clarity about the role of these programs in relation to Housing First (HF) discourse. The authors examine the role of MAPs within a policy environment that has become dominated by a focus on HF approaches to addressing homelessness. This examination includes a focus on Canadian policy contexts where MAPs originated and are still predominately located. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of MAPs as a novel response to homelessness among people experiencing severe AUD and to describe the place of MAPs within a HF context.

This conceptual paper outlines the development of discourses related to persons experiencing severe AUD and homelessness, with a focus on HF and MAPs as responses to these challenges. The authors compare the key characteristics of MAPs with “core principles” and values as outlined in various definitions of HF.

MAPs incorporate many of the core values or principles of HF as outlined in some definitions, although not all. MAPs (and other housing/treatment models) provide critical housing and support services for populations who might not fit well with or who might not prefer HF models.

The “silver bullet” discourse surrounding HF (and harm reduction) can obscure the importance of programs (such as MAPs) that do not fully align with all HF principles and program models. This is despite the fact that MAPs (and other models) provide critical housing and support services for populations who might fall between the cracks of HF models. There is the potential for MAPs to help fill a gap in the application of harm reduction in HF programs. The authors also suggest a need to move beyond HF discourse, to embrace complexity and move toward examining what mixture of different housing and harm reduction supports are needed to provide a complete or comprehensive array of services and supports for people who use substances and are experiencing homelessness.

Emerging states confront staggering shortages in adequate housing stock. In response, governments have sought various supply-based solutions to mitigate growing housing deficits. While many of these mass housing efforts have not produced the desired outcome, the Republic of Korea’s Two Million Housing Drive (TMHD) was a comparatively successful intervention with its implementation from 1988 to 1992. The five-year initiative exceeded its objective with the construction of over 2.1 million units – of which two-thirds were built by the private sector. The purpose of this study is to analyse Korea’s relatively effective supply-based affordable housing approach and then extrapolate best practices and lessons learned with applications for real estate markets in the developing world. Comparative understanding of the TMHD can help promote greater access to adequate housing in the developing world, especially for the many who continue to live in impoverished conditions.

The research uses content-based and quantitative methods to analyze the case of the TMHD in Korea toward informing improvements in corresponding supply-based housing policies and programs in developing states.

While there were challenges with the TMHD, the program repositioned Korea’s urban housing market with greater access to affordable housing in cities for the lower-income and vulnerable. The TMHD enabled the subsequent effectiveness of demand-based housing policies.

There are research limitations in fully understanding the complex relationships between mass housing programs, economic growth and government policies. The abductive reasoning used in this case study enables in-depth analysis of the TMHD with generalizable inferences for middle-range theories with applications for emerging markets.

The experience of the TMHD can promote policy harmonization by helping optimize corresponding mass housing efforts in the developing world with the potential to similarly close quantitative housing deficits and expand access to adequate housing for lower-income and vulnerable households.

Deeper understanding of the TMHD can lead to reforms of other mass housing initiatives in emerging markets to make adequate housing more accessible and economical for the benefit of underserved segments of society.

The Korean experience with the TMHD can inform the optimization of other similar large-scale policies and programs seeking to sustainably overcome shortfalls in adequate housing that have become all too common in the developing world.

This paper aims to explore the impact of the joint operation of affordability policies and whether their impact is meaningful relative to the size of the affordability crisis. Its purpose is to construct the features of a comprehensive policy package linked to a measurable outcome: solving the affordability crisis in Auckland. This study investigates the scale and nature of an affordability package that responds to three research and policy questions: What should the rate of annual growth of affordable housing be to solve the affordability crisis? Consequently, how long would it take to solve it? And how much would that policy package cost?

In this paper, the authors argue that the disjoint operation of affordability policies is one of the reasons why their impacts relative to the size of the affordability crisis has been small or negligible. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that affordability is as much about raising households’ incomes as it is about lowering housing prices. This study uses a modelling-based framework to simulate some of the levers that local and central governments have to affect housing prices and affordability: direct intervention on the supply-side and subsidies. Specifically, this simulates retention-and-targeting (RT) programs and subsidies to raise deposits via shared ownership (SO) schemes.

This study finds that solving the affordability crisis would take a decade if the supply of affordable housing increases by at least 45% annually. With the introduction of RT and SO programs, it could still be solved within a decade, where the required growth rate decreases to 35%. However, for growth rates between 5% and 10%, the policy goal is met in approximately 40 years, and the SO program becomes exceedingly expensive.

Housing affordability is one of the hottest policy issues in New Zealand and the developed world. In the past decade, a number of affordability policies have been introduced with limited success due to their lack of interoperability and siloed efforts. Results in this paper should be interpreted as the boundaries of what is feasible and realistic in the realm of affordability policies. Therefore, its contribution relies on investigating the multiple effects if the financial, administrative and political barriers to RT and SO programs could be overcome. Its scope is a blueprint for the design of policies in other cities where unaffordability has become extreme.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the programmatic effectiveness of a post-incarceration support service, Jail In-Reach, to rapidly and permanently re-house newly released offenders with a documented history of homelessness, substance abuse and mental health disorders.

Data were obtained from SEARCH Homeless Services using the Adult Texas Recommended Assessment Guidelines survey instrument by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Repeated measures analysis of variance were performed to determine the effects of select predictors on the likelihood of permanent housing, which, for this research, is considered programmatic success.

Results indicate clients exhibited decreased risks of self-harm, employment problems, housing instability, co-occurring substance use, and criminal justice involvement as well as increased social support. Over half of the program participants either disappeared from the program or only secured temporary housing.

This was a small pilot project with limited generalizability. There have been no follow-up studies to examine long term permanent housing success. No data were available as to why participants dropped out of the program.

Intensive advocacy and support services provided pre- and post-institutional release could provide formerly homeless inmates with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues with positive outcomes.

Housing stability and connections to social service agencies are key factors for ensuring ex-offenders do not become re-incarcerated.

This paper contributes to the literature related to reducing homelessness among ex-offenders, to the effectiveness of critical time intervention-based programming, and the need for building social capital amongst this unique and underserved population.

Housing First has been upheld as an evidence‐based best practice for transitioning homeless individuals into permanent housing in a maximally cost‐effective and humane manner. However, there is much variance in the implementation and structure of Housing First programming in the USA. This paper aims to focus on a collaborative, interdisciplinary Housing First effort to house and provide case management and ancillary services to chronically homeless individuals in The City of San Mateo, California.

The paper is a case study in which the philosophy, structure, and impact of San Mateo's outreach and housing team are discussed. To explore the project's impact, data concerning arrests and other criminal justice contacts, as well as health costs associated with these clients, both prior to and post housing and services, were collected and analyzed. These are corroborated with qualitative data on client outcomes.

After participants received housing and wrap‐around supportive services provided through the collaboration of police, local stakeholders, and non‐profits, the cost of medical care and criminal justice interventions were dramatically reduced. While challenges such as the availability of housing units remain, the findings of this study strongly support the interdisciplinary outreach team as a model for Housing First programming.

This is an in‐depth study, derived from a particularly innovative project; and therefore the sample size is limited by the size of the project.

The originality of this study lies in its analysis of a Housing First model which incorporates an interdisciplinary outreach team designed to provide highly individualized care for clients. The San Mateo permanent supportive housing pilot project is itself unique in that it incorporates a Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) comprised of the police, other government entities, local stakeholders, and other non‐profits engaged with homelessness.