Participants in the Housing Without Peer Support program were provided with community-based housing (apartment- or motel-based) and subject to random alcohol and drug testing. Participants were also required to monitor their use of substance abuse and rehabilitation services, as well as other services received in the community, twice per week. Services were generally unsupervised.
Eligible participants were adults experiencing homelessness who had alcohol use disorders; who had been living in or near Albuquerque, NM, for three months or more; and who did not have serious disabilities or dependent children. The interventions (housing and support services) were four months in duration.
The effectiveness of Housing Without Peer Support, when compared to Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance, indicates the effect of being referred to a set of services that includes those unique to Housing Without Peer Support, or how much better the services of Housing Without Peer Support meets participants’ needs than the services of Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance. The main difference between the interventions was that Housing Without Peer Support provided cost-free housing to participants but not substance use treatment, whereas Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance provided substance use treatment and paid the bus fare for transportation to treatment facilities; it also paid participants to provide data at biweekly check-ins with program staff on their use of health services, but it did not provide housing. This evaluation also examined Housing with Peer Support and the effectiveness of Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance when compared to Housing Without Peer Support.
Low
