Study: Housing First reduces crime and improves employment outcomes for homeless
Photo: Tierra Mallorca/Unsplash
By Robert Davis
A new working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found that Housing First programs—which provide housing assistance without precondition—reduce crime rates and improve employment outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.
It comes as homelessness continues to grow across the country. According to the latest Point in Time Count, more than 580,000 people experience homelessness on a given night, a three percent increase from the previous year. Another 1.4 million Americans utilize homeless services as of September 2020, and more than 1.3 million students are classified as homeless under the McKinney Vento Act, according to federal data.
“Overall, these findings have important implications for policy debates over eligibility, duration, and targeting of Housing First assistance to individuals experiencing homelessness,” said Elior Cohen, an economist at the Kansas City Fed and the report’s author.
The paper analyzed outcomes for homeless single adults aged 25 and under in Los Angeles County who receive Housing First assistance to those who did not. The dataset was compiled by linking administrative records from local sheriff’s departments, health services, and other public service agencies.
According to the paper, short-term Housing First programs, which last for 18 months or less, tended to deliver favorable outcomes such as decreased crime and increased health, employment, and income much faster than long-term programs.
However, long-term programs, which last between 19 and 30 months, tended to produce “considerably larger effects in magnitude in future homelessness,” the paper said.
Cohen said there are two reasons for the difference in outcomes. One is that many people who are placed into long-term programs are working with case managers, who often work to address a multitude of problems simultaneously. The second reason is that there is simply more time for people to reengage with the homeless service sector throughout the duration of the program.
Housing First programs also produced a bevy of non-housing benefits for participants regardless of their duration, Cohen said.
For example, short-term Housing First programs—also known as rapid re-housing—caused individual arrest rates to drop by 95 percent. Dependence on cash benefits also dropped by 80 percent and the use of social services dropped by 35 percent, according to the paper.
Short-term Housing First programs also produced a $715 increase in the mean monthly income for program participants at the 18-month mark compared to a $640 per month increase after 30 months.
“These results are more descriptive in nature…since the random assignment in this study is for any Housing First program and not for the type of Housing First program,” Cohen said.
The paper also found that Housing First programs are a cost-effective way for municipalities to address homelessness. It estimates that the average cost of direct public services is approximately $83,000 per homeless person, though state and local estimates vary widely.
Altogether, Cohen calculated that Housing First program costs are often offset by direct savings to public service agencies within 18 months. The savings also come from a multitude of sources such as reduced use of homeless services, reductions in public health and crime costs, and improved employment outcomes.
Cohen said many municipalities could see even more significant outcomes because his calculation “ignore[s] the indirect benefits of reducing street homelessness.”
“These benefits are likely to accumulate over time and become larger since the cost of homelessness increases exponentially with time,” Cohen said.