From streets to homes: An innovative approach to supported housing for homeless adults with psychiatric disabilities

This article describes a supported housing program that provides immediate access to permanent independent housing to individuals who are homeless and have psychiatric disabilities. Following housing placement, Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams provide treatment, support, and other needed services. The residential stability of tenants in this supported housing program was compared to that of tenants in a linear residential treatment program that serves the same population, but uses a step-by-step sequence of placements moving to supervised independent living. The 139 tenants of the supported housing program achieved a housing-retention rate of 84.2% over a 3-year period while the rate for 2,864 residents of the comparison program was only 59.6% over a shorter 2-year period. Additional data from direct interviews with the supported housing tenants were used to identify factors that predicted client participation in, and satisfaction with, particular services received. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.