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Summary

PBTH was a housing initiative that gave families temporary, subsidized housing and case management, with the goal of helping them obtain permanent housing. This evaluation directly compared PBTH with a separate intervention, CBRR, to better understand which of the two interventions might be more effective; the distinctive feature of PBTH is that families received temporary subsidized housing.

Eligible families had spent at least one week in an emergency homeless shelter, had at least one child age 15 or younger, and had sufficient income to pay their share of rent or had the ability to seek employment. They received subsidized housing in agency-controlled housing units, along with intensive case management. Families paid 30 percent of their unadjusted monthly income toward housing costs. Case management services provided by PBTH were mainly intended to help families find permanent housing but included financial management, help coordinating public benefits, and employment and training services. PBTH programs provided 6 to 24 months of housing assistance along with case management. The intervention took place in 12 locations in the United States: Alameda County, CA; Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Connecticut; Denver, CO; Honolulu, HI; Kansas City, MO; Louisville, KY; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; and Salt Lake City, UT.

Comparing the effectiveness of PBTH with the effectiveness of CBRR indicates how much better PBTH meets participants’ needs than CBRR does. The distinctive feature of PBTH is that families received subsidized housing in a project-based housing unit, rather than finding housing assistance in the broader community. This evaluation also studied a Permanent Housing Subsidy.

25295.04R-Study of Project-bas
Populations and employment barriers: Parents, Homelessness

Effectiveness rating and effect by outcome domain

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Outcome domain Term Effectiveness rating Effect in 2018 dollars and percentages Effect in standard deviations Sample size
Increase earnings Short-term No evidence to assess support
Long-term Little evidence to assess support unfavorable $-335 per year -0.016 451
Very long-term No evidence to assess support
Increase employment Short-term No evidence to assess support
Long-term Little evidence to assess support unfavorable 0% (in percentage points) -0.003 451
Very long-term No evidence to assess support
Decrease benefit receipt Short-term No evidence to assess support
Long-term Little evidence to assess support unfavorable $58 per year 0.021 364
Very long-term No evidence to assess support
Increase education and training All measurement periods No evidence to assess support
* This intervention was assessed as supported for this domain, meaning it achieved one or more statistically significant, favorable effects. However, the intervention has an average effect size that is unfavorable because the average includes all effects in this domain - both statistically significant and favorable effects and statistically insignificant but unfavorable effects.

Effectiveness rating key:

  • Well-supported Well-supported   
  • Supported  Supported   
  • Not supported  Not supported   
  • Mixed support  Mixed support   
  • Insufficient evidence  Insufficient evidence   
  • No evidence  No evidence
Effectiveness rating terms?

Studies of this intervention

Study quality rating Study counts per rating
High High 1
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Implementation details

Characteristics of research participants
Black or African American
45%
White, not Hispanic
17%
Unknown, not reported, or other
26%
Hispanic or Latino of any race
13%

The race and ethnicity categories may sum to more than 100 percent if the authors reported race and ethnicity separately; in these cases, we report the category White, rather than White, not Hispanic.

State(s) where implemented

AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY Canada

The Pathways Clearinghouse refers to interventions by the names used in study reports or manuscripts. Some intervention names may use language that is not consistent with our style guide, preferences, or the terminology we use to describe populations.

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