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Understanding Rapid Re-housing Study

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Overview

The Understanding Rapid Re-housing study is a multi-year project undertaken to address important questions about rapid re-housing (RRH) assistance and how it is administered by organizations and experienced by program participants in communities around the country. This project includes components that synthesize current research on RRH outcomes and undertake new analysis of existing data, and others that conduct new data collection and analysis.

Findings from the study broaden our understanding of the extent to which rapid re-housing achieves its intended goals; provide information for policymakers about what happens to households who are assisted with RRH; and catalog the range of program models and emerging practices used by RRH providers.

Reports

Systematic Review of Rapid Re-housing Outcomes Literature
This systematic review of RRH outcomes literature summarizes the available evidence on rapid rehousing with a specific focus on how rapid re-housing programs have performed in relation to performance benchmarks. This report also presents descriptive information on the design and implementation of RRH programs, drawing on the research literature and on the authors’ knowledge of RRH practice.

Supplemental Analysis of Data from the Family Options Study
This paper presents new analysis of data collected from the Family Options Study, exploring differences in the use of RRH in the 12 communities participating in the study and providing additional information on returns to shelter following the use of RRH as well as describing the housing quality and rents paid for families who participated in RRH.

Rapid Re-housing in 2018: Program Features and Assistance Models
This report is a community scan that uses newly collected data from surveys administered to CoCs and RRH programs along with in-depth interviews with 20 RRH programs to describe key features of RRH programs across the nation. This report found that while rental assistance structure and duration of assistance varied considerably, most programs reported using progressive engagement, and in tight markets more than half of RRH programs paid participants’ entire rent, then transitioned to paying a portion of their rent.

Findings from Initial Interviews with Rapid Re-housing Participants
This report describes findings from one-time in-depth interviews with 30 RRH participants in two communities at different stages of RRH—six enrolled in RRH but still in emergency shelter, 18 currently receiving RRH assistance, and six who had exited RRH in the past six months. This report found that participants reported some anxiety, but also a sense of motivation, around the variation in rental assistance. At the same time, many were concerned about how they would be able to maintain their housing in the long term.

Understanding Rapid Re-housing through Participants’ Experiences
This final report from the Understanding Rapid Re-housing study presents the findings from approximately 16 months of qualitative research with 16 households during and after their time in RRH. Findings from this research are meant to help policymakers and practitioners better understand how RRH programs assist people experiencing homelessness and contribute to their overall housing stability.

Understanding Rapid Re-housing: What Did We Learn?
This brief paper synthesizes all of the components of the study for an overview of how they all fit together to provide a comprehensive picture of RRH. The paper also recommends areas for future research.

RRH Data Repository

The 2018 Rapid Re-housing (RRH) Data Repository, linked below, is a data tool that combines newly collected survey data from CoCs and RRH programs with data from secondary data sources to provide the first comprehensive documentation of RRH programs nationwide. The repository has a dashboard with a query function that allows users to select options such as state, housing market cost (e.g., high, moderate, or low cost), and/or target population to find specific statistics for selected characteristics.