Housing Retention in Single-Site Housing First for Chronically Homeless Individuals With Severe Alcohol Problems.

HYPOTHESIS; ALCOHOLISM; CHI-squared test; CONFIDENCE intervals; PSYCHOLOGICAL distress; ALCOHOL drinking; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HOMELESS persons; HOUSING; LONGITUDINAL method; PATIENT compliance; PSYCHOLOGICAL tests; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH funding; LOGISTIC regression analysis; DATA analysis; SECONDARY analysis; SOCIAL support; PREDICTIVE validity; DESCRIPTIVE statistics

Objectives. We studied housing retention and its predictors in the single-site Housing First model. Methods. Participants (n = 111) were chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems who lived in a single-site Housing First program and participated in a larger nonrandomized controlled trial (2005-2008) conducted in Seattle, Washington. At baseline, participants responded to self-report questionnaires assessing demographic, illness burden, alcohol and other drug use, and psychiatric variables. Housing status was recorded over 2 years. Results. Participants were interested in housing, although a sizable minority did not believe they would be able to maintain abstinence-based housing. Only 23% of participants returned to homelessness during the 2-year follow-up. Commonly cited risk factors--alcohol and other drug use, illness burden, psychiatric symptoms, and homelessness history---did not predict resumed homelessness. Active drinkers were more likely to stay in this housing project than nondrinkers. Conclusions. We found that single-site Housing First programming fills a gap in housing options for chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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