No wrong door: Can clinical care facilitate veteran engagement in housing services?

It is well established that providing stable housing to homeless persons improves health outcomes. It is less clear whether engagement in clinical care facilitates housing outcomes. We present a post hoc analysis of a prospective, community-based randomized controlled trial of homeless veterans not actively receiving or assigned to a primary care. Study subjects were interviewed at baseline, 1 month and 6 months and survey results were supplemented/verified by review of all notes in their VA electronic medical record for 6 months postenrollment. A total of 142 subjects with complete data were included in this analysis: 82 (57.7%) were in a stable sheltering/housing arrangement (transitional housing, stably doubled-up, independent housing) at baseline and stayed stable; 36 (25.4%) started in an unstable sheltering arrangement (unsheltered, emergency sheltered, unstable doubled-up arrangement) and moved into stable sheltering/housing while 24 (17.0%) individuals either started in and stayed unstably sheltered or went from a stable to an unstable arrangement. Of 36 individuals who transitioned from unstable to stable sheltering/housing, 25 (69.4%) accessed primary care within 1 month compared with 37.5% of the persistently unstable sheltering group and 57.3% of the stably sheltered/housed group (p = .05). Of those with care within 1 month, their average time from unstable to stable housing was 84.8 days compared with 165.9 days for those who do not access care (p = .02). Of those receiving primary care within 1 month of enrollment, 88.9% were in stable sheltering at 6 months. These findings suggest an important role for clinical engagement in helping achieve housing stability for homeless veterans. (PsycINFO Database Record