Supportive housing for families in child welfare: Client characteristics and their outcomes at discharge

Anne F. Farrell, Preston A. Britner, Mariana Guzzardo and Samantha Goodrich

Children and Youth Services Review, 2010, vol. 32, issue 2, 145-154

Abstract: Housing problems present barriers to family unity and reunification among families in the child welfare system, yet few programs address both child welfare and housing needs. To date, the field lacks data for understanding families with dual vulnerabilities in these arenas and the programs that support them. This study aimed to address that gap by reporting the characteristics and outcomes of 1720 families referred to a Supportive Housing for Families (SHF) program over a 10-year period. This report describes client characteristics, progress, and outcomes at discharge. Positive shifts in employment and housing were evident across the entire sample. Clients who completed the program successfully had longer stays, were more likely to have a history of permanent housing and employment, and had higher initial and exit scores on a measure of environment of care. Higher client-staff involvement and service utilization were associated significantly with positive discharge, but not with procurement of permanent housing. This report provides initial endorsement for the SHF model and makes suggestions for program practice, future research, and policy. More research is critical if we are to understand the optimal mechanisms of support and change that lead to child safety and family self-sufficiency.

Keywords: Foster; care; Housing; Child; welfare; Program; evaluation; North; Carolina; Family; Assessment; Scale; Case; management; At-risk; Reunification; Stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(09)00166-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:2:p:145-154

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().