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Cityscape: Volume 19 Number 3 | U.S. Commentary: The Family Options Study and Family Well-Being Outcomes

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The goal of Cityscape is to bring high-quality original research on housing and community development issues to scholars, government officials, and practitioners. Cityscape is open to all relevant disciplines, including architecture, consumer research, demography, economics, engineering, ethnography, finance, geography, law, planning, political science, public policy, regional science, sociology, statistics, and urban studies.

Cityscape is published three times a year by the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.



The Family Options Study

Volume 19, Number 3

Mark D. Shroder

Michelle P. Matuga

U.S. Commentary: The Family Options Study and Family Well-Being Outcomes

Marah A. Curtis
University of Wisconsin–Madison


The Family Options Study, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-sponsored longitudinal randomized study evaluating homeless service interventions for families with children, is the focus of this symposium. This study enrolled participant families between 2010 and 2012 and followed them for at least 3 years. Nearly 2,300 families experiencing homelessness, in 12 sites across the nation, were assigned to one of four conditions after spending 7 or more nights in a homeless shelter. The 12 participating sites recruited for the study varied across size, geography, and housing markets to capture variation in conditions associated with homelessness. Although sites were not randomly selected, at study entrance, Family Options Study participants shared characteristics similar to families experiencing homelessness across the nation (Gubits et al., 2016).


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