Exposure to project-based Housing First is associated with reduced jail time and bookings

Project-based Housing First (HF) programs provide immediate, permanent, low-barrier, nonabstinence-based supportive housing to chronically homeless people within a single housing project. Previous studies have shown project-based HF is associated with 6-month reductions in jail time (Larimer et al., 2009), and that people with criminal histories are able to maintain their housing in supportive housing, such as project-based HF (Malone, 2009; Tsai & Rosenheck, 2012). This study aimed to extend these findings to document the criminal histories of project-based HF residents and to test the associations among exposure to project-based HF, criminal histories and jail time over a 2-year follow-up.

Participants (N = 95) were chronically homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems who moved into project-based HF. Measures included administrative data on criminal history, project-based HF exposure, and jail days and bookings for two-years prior to and subsequent to move into project-based HF.

The majority of all past criminal convictions were misdemeanors (91.3%). Further, criminal convictions did not predict participants' housing retention in project-based HF. Months of project-based HF exposure - not prior criminal histories - predicted significant decreases in jail days and bookings from the two years prior and subsequent to participants' move into HF.

Findings suggest that participants' criminal histories primarily reflect "symptoms" of homelessness rather than threats to public safety. Further, the extent of participants' criminal histories was not associated with subsequent jail time or housing attrition. Although causation cannot be implied, these findings show that the amount of time spent in project-based HF is associated with decreased jail time for up to two years following initial HF exposure.