The intervention housed participants in substance- and cost-free Project H&ART residences. Residence managers who were themselves recovering from substance use disorders provided participants with support. They encouraged participants to set personal goals and build peer support networks. Participants were required to (1) remain alcohol and drug free (as determined by random drug tests), (2) attend weekly community meetings, and (3) inform residence managers twice weekly about any other community services received.
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 with 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 with Peer Support, or how much better the offer of Housing with Peer Support meets participants’ needs than the offer of Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance. The key difference was that Housing with Peer Support provided housing but not substance use disorder treatment, whereas Referrals to Substance Use Treatment and Transportation Assistance provided substance use disorder treatment and paid the bus fare for transportation to treatment facilities; it also paid participants to provide program staff with data at biweekly check-ins on their use of health services, but it did not provide participants with housing. This evaluation also examined Housing Without Peer Support.
Low
