presenters: lisa thornquist, matthew ayres, matthew ayres, maria hanratty, maria hanratty, david...

Presenters: Lisa Thornquist, Matthew Ayres, Maria Hanratty, David Hollister and

Hyojin Im

Heading Home Hennepin• A community plan to end versus manage

homelessness• Specific plan with measurable

benchmarks• City Council and County Board Approval

– December 2006• Implementation began January 1, 2007

Commission Members• Faith Community Leaders• Business Leaders• Elected Officials• Government Officials• Service Providers• Philanthropic Leaders• People Experiencing Homelessness

Implementation of HHH

Goal 1: Prevention

• Keep people in the housing that they already have

• Ensure people do not become homeless when leaving public institutions

Goal 2: Outreach

• Develop coordinated street outreach system to connect with and house people most disconnected from services

• Partner with police to reduce unnecessary arrests and improve community livability

• Expand youth outreach into the suburbs

Goal 3: Housing

• Create 5000 new housing opportunities for men, women, children and youth by 2016

• Preserve existing housing stock• Target highest users of systems to

break the cycles of homelessness

Goal 4:Improve Service Delivery

• Connect people to the services they need to escape homelessness

• Hold Project Homeless Connect events

• Develop Opportunity Centers

Goal 5: Build Capacity for Self Support

• Increase incomes through education, job training, employment, and access to benefits.

• Increase access to more affordable transportation

Goal 6:Systems Improvements

• Increase cultural competency of service delivery systems

• Promote policies and practices that end homelessness – at all levels of government

Why Connect HHH to HUP?

• One of the pieces of the plan is to evaluate the plan and report annually.

• The plan has dozens of initiatives, each designed to either prevent, intervene, or better coordinate programs.

What HHH and HUP have to offer each other

• Hennepin County is data rich • U of M is student/faculty rich.• Hennepin offers U students and

faculty experience with administrative data, difficult analytical questions and real world issues.

• The U offers an independent analysis.

Since we have no money

• We started by approaching the School of Social Work, who made a commitment to help us.

• We focused on connecting with course curriculum

Undergraduate Service Learning classes

• Some classes require students to volunteer for an organization 30+ hours in the semester and write a paper about their experience.

• We used this opportunity to get students to do literature searches and interviews.

Undergraduate Service Learning classes

• Sociology students: panhandling, criminalization of homelessness, discharge planning from HCMC and corrections (Fall 2009).

• Geography students: perception survey around homelessness (Fall 2009).

Graduate Level Capstone Classes

• Some programs require a team of students to do high level research

• We can give them a complicated analysis and data and they can conduct the study over a 3-4 month time frame.

Graduate Level Capstone Classes

• Evaluation of Housing First (completed Spring 2009)

• Patterns of Single Shelter Use (Spring 2010)

• Evaluation of HHH as a collaborative (Spring 2010

School of Social Work Learning Modules

• We partnered with the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare for research on refugee experiences with homelessness.

• This led to learnings to be incorporated into SSW learning modules.

Department of Education Policy and Administration• Program evaluation class• Evaluation of YouthLink program for

homeless youth (Spring 2010).

What has worked the best for us?• We needed to be clear about what we

wanted done – what is the research question?

• We had to have a project that fit the curriculum needs of the class.

• We had to be willing to put in extra time to work directly with students. It had to be a good learning experience.

Heading Home Hennepin: Housing First Program Evaluation

Professor Maria HanrattyTim BarryNaima BashirMittra EsmaeliKerstin LarsonTim Reneau-MajorJulie Trupke-Bastidas

Spring 2009

• Project Context: One semester capstone project for six MPP

students at the Humphrey Institute of public Affairs

• Project PurposeEvaluate Housing First programs for homeless single adults in Hennepin County.

• Methodology & Deliverables▫ Quantitative Analysis of Administrative Data: ▫ In-person interviews with 11 program participants

Quantitative AnalysisMatched Comparison Methodology

•Treatment Group- 294 individuals placed into Housing First housing 2005-2008

•Matched comparison: individuals in Hennepin county shelters with similar age, sex, & shelter use in last three years

•Measured change in outcomes 1 year before & after placement

Matched Control Analysis: Shelter Use

Participants Matched Control Program Effect

76.1 78.5

-35

5.4

42.8

Mean Shelter Nights 12 months Pre- and Post-Placement

Pre Post

Matched Control AnalysisHealth Insurance Program Enrollment (12 month timeframe)


225.6

191.8

47.4

280.899999999999

199.7

Mean days of health insurance coverage

Pre Post


0.760000000000002

1.2

0.45

1.2

-0.310000000000

001

Mean arrests of participant and matched control groups, pre- and

post-placementPre-placement Post-placement

Matched Control AnalysisPolice Encounters (12 month timeframe)

Selected Finding from Interviews:

•Most Reported Improved Wellbeing: Housing represented safety,

independence, stability, as well as ownership and self-esteem

•Some reported Challenges with isolation, adjusting to new routine, managing finances, accessing transportation

•Many had moved since initial placement.

Experience with Research Project• It would not be feasible to do this project in 6

months without prior supports in place! --Hennepin county provided access to

administrative data & contacts to key program staff --Hennepin University partnership

agreement made it much easier to gain permission to use

data from Hennepin County & University IRB --IRB process challenging for individual

interviews; limited questions we could ask

HEADING HOME HENNEPIN: REFUGEE HOMELESSNESS RESEARCH PROJECT

Presenters: David Hollister & Hyojin Im

HENNEPIN COUNTY – UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

PARTNERSHIP

Jan. 29th, 2010 Hennepin County – University of Minnesota Partnership

Project Collaborators

School of Social Work,

University of Minnesota

Refugee Housing Council

Office of Ending Homelessness,

Hennepin County

CURA

Jan. 29th, 2010Hennepin County – University of Minnesota Partnership

Underlying Mutual Interests

Hennepin County has developed a strong interest and commitment to preventing homelessness (Heading Home Hennepin)

Minnesota voluntary agencies serving refugees are concerned that some refugees are experiencing homelessness

U of M School of Social Work has faculty and graduate students interested in refugees’ and immigrants’ needs and in homelessness. Students need projects.

The project was eligible for support both from the U of M School of Social Work’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare and from the U of M’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs


Pulling in Resources:

The project was done on a limited budget: Hennepin Co. contributed a portion of Lisa T.’s time,

plus funds for participant and interviewer honoraria. U of M School of Social Work contributed a portion of

Dave H’s time, plus part of a student R.A.’s time (Hoa N.)

Doctoral student Hyojin I. worked as a volunteer researcher, using the project to fulfill a research practicum requirement.

CURA contributed a ¼ time R.A. for fall 2008 (Jennifer S.), under one of its community assistance programs.

U of M McNair Scholars program assigned an Oromo-speaking undergraduate student (Chaltu H.) to work with Dave H. for research experience, plus some additional participant honoraria.


Research Questions

What are refugees’ resettlement experiences and their housing situations?

How do refugees’ help-seeking patterns and their perceptions/experiences about social services affect their housing stability?

Do refugees’ social capital, acculturation, English fluency, mental health, and demographics affect their housing issues?

What would be the preventive and risk factors for housing stability among refugees?

Are there ethnic differences in housing issues among Somali, Hmong, Karen, Liberian, and Oromo? Jan. 29th, 2010Hennepin County – University of Minnesota Partnership

Research Process

Methods: Survey method using quota sampling (50 from each cultural group) Fall 2008 to Fall 2009 (from design to

analysis/report) 250 refugee participants among Hmong,

Karen, Somali, Oromo, and Western Africans (Liberian/Togolese)

Six bi-lingual volunteers gathered data (61.7% needed translation)


Research Results and Implications Stability of refugees’ first housing is associated

with future success in housing. Housing is too expensive to solve informally. Help-seeking intention and trust is negatively

associated with accessibility to social services Newly resettled refugees have more expectations

and trust in social services, but also more language barriers and transportation issues and less social support (informal helping sources).

Lack of ethnic community’s support matters. Marginalized groups. e.g. Togolese


Products

Presentations and written reports to Heading Home Hennepin and the Refugee Housing Council

Poster sessions at national social work conferences and at four U of M research day events

Papers submitted for an international conference in June 2010

Articles in preparation for several journals Upcoming consultation on a local

community housing project serving refugees


Challenges in Collaborating

Connecting the interested players – how to find each other

Sustainability of Research Relevant courses are not available

all the time Student and faculty interests don’t

always match County’s focus Funding, funding and funding


Comments & Questions

presenters: lisa thornquist, matthew ayres, matthew ayres, maria hanratty, maria hanratty, david...

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