Recent Rapid Re-Housing Research

Rapid re-housing is growing exponentially in communities nationwide as a proven way to end homelessness for families and individuals.

In July 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the two largest funders of rapid re-housing, released data on the impacts of rapid re-housing in two reports: HUD’s Short-term Impacts from the Family Options Study and VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) FY 2014 Annual Report.

Both reports provide information on the ability of rapid re-housing to meet the primary measures of success in ending homelessness, as established by Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act:

• Help households quickly exit homelessness; Increase the number of households exiting to permanent housing;
• Prevent households from returning to homelessness;
• Increase a household’s self-sufficiency; and
• Decrease homelessness overall.

Help Households Quickly Exit Homelessness

• Families that enrolled in a rapid re-housing program exited shelter in an average of 2 months. That was 3.2 months faster than those that were referred to rapid re-housing, but did not enroll. –Family Options Study

Increase the Number of Households Exiting

• 73 percent of people rapidly re-housed exited to permanent housing. In fact, 67 percent of those who had zero income and did not receive a permanent housing voucher exited to permanent housing. –SSVF 2014 Annual Report

Prevent Households From Returning to Homelessness

• 93 percent of families and 88 percent of single adult veterans housed with rapid re-housing did not return to homelessness for at least a year. –SSVF 2014 Annual Report
• 77 percent of families that enrolled in rapid re-housing did not return to shelter. –Family Options Study

Increase a Household’s Self-Sufficiency

• Monthly incomes for rapidly re-housed veterans increased 12 percent from program entry to exit. –SSVF 2014 Annual Report
• Families referred to rapid re-housing had incomes 10 percent higher than those referred to usual care. –Family Options Study

Decrease Homelessness Overall

• 5 families can be rapidly re-housed ($6,578 per family) for what it costs to house one family via transitional housing ($32,557 per family). –Family Options Study