IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i13p4840-d380557.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“ I Felt Safe ”: The Role of the Rapid Rehousing Program in Supporting the Security of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Salt Lake County, Utah

Author

Listed:
  • Ivis García

    (Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, 375 South 1530 East, Suite 235, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

  • Keuntae Kim

    (Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, 375 South 1530 East, Suite 235, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA)

Abstract

Homelessness is a public health issue that many organizations are addressing through a Housing First Model. One such organization is The Road Home (TRH), which provides services to homeless individuals and families in Salt Lake County. TRH is perhaps best known for their emergency shelters, but the organization also administers the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP), designed to help families experiencing homelessness transition back into stable housing. Those experiencing homelessness tend to have high rates of chronic mental/physical disabilities as well as issues related to substance abuse. Having a home is the first step toward achieving some kind of stability in their lives. The RRHP allows families to find housing in the private rental market and will cover the initial costs and several months of rent for clients. While the program has been praised by policymakers and social service providers for helping homeless families find rental housing, there is no empirical research about participant perspectives regarding their residential (in)security. The research question of this article is: what is the role of the RRHP in supporting the security of families experiencing homelessness? Researchers collected qualitative data through focus groups and interviews with 31 participants, 23 families experiencing homelessness, two landlords, six case managers, and service providers. Lastly, we identify recommendations for program improvements based on information gathered from research participants. It is our hope that the information presented in this article can and will be used in a way that improves public health by increasing the residential security of families experiencing homelessness.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivis García & Keuntae Kim, 2020. "“ I Felt Safe ”: The Role of the Rapid Rehousing Program in Supporting the Security of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Salt Lake County, Utah," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4840-:d:380557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4840/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4840/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corinth, Kevin, 2017. "The impact of permanent supportive housing on homeless populations," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 69-84.
    2. Thomas Byrne & Dan Treglia & Dennis P. Culhane & John Kuhn & Vincent Kane, 2016. "Predictors of Homelessness Among Families and Single Adults After Exit From Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Programs: Evidence From the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services ," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 252-275, January.
    3. Keuntae Kim & Ivis Garcia, 2019. "Why Do Homeless Families Exit and Return the Homeless Shelter? Factors Affecting the Risk of Family Homelessness in Salt Lake County (Utah, United States) as a Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Connell, Janice & O'Cathain, Alicia & Brazier, John, 2014. "Measuring quality of life in mental health: Are we asking the right questions?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 12-20.
    5. Bassuk, E.L. & Buckner, J.C. & Weinreb, L.F. & Browne, A. & Bassuk, S.S. & Dawson, R. & Perloff, J.N., 1997. "Homelessness in female-headed families: Childhood and adult risk and protective factors," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(2), pages 241-248.
    6. Zlotnick, C. & Zerger, S. & Wolfe, P.B., 2013. "Health care for the homeless: What we have learned in the past 30 years and what's next," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(S2), pages 199-205.
    7. April Jackson & Bridget Callea & Nicholas Stampar & Abigail Sanders & Alberto De Los Rios & Jake Pierce, 2020. "Exploring Tiny Homes as an Affordable Housing Strategy to Ameliorate Homelessness: A Case Study of the Dwellings in Tallahassee, FL," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alison L. Weightman & Mark J. Kelson & Ian Thomas & Mala K. Mann & Lydia Searchfield & Simone Willis & Ben Hannigan & Robin J. Smith & Rhiannon Cordiner, 2023. "Exploring the effect of case management in homelessness per components: A systematic review of effectiveness and implementation, with meta‐analysis and thematic synthesis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), June.
    2. Canham, Sarah L. & Donovan, Morrison & Rose, Jeff & Jones, Shannon & Garcia, Ivis, 2023. "Transportation needs and mobility patterns of persons experiencing homelessness following shelter decentralization," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Sara Nourazari & Kristina Lovato & Suzie S. Weng, 2021. "Making the Case for Proactive Strategies to Alleviate Homelessness: A Systems Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Ivis García, 2024. "The Value of Reentry Housing, Zoning, and “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) Obstacles, and How to Overcome Them," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Angelina L. DeMarco & Rebecca Hardenbrook & Jeff Rose & Daniel L. Mendoza, 2020. "Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts on Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Environmental Justice and Health Vulnerability in Salt Lake County, Utah," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Chiumenti, 2019. "The growing shortage of affordable housing for the extremely low income in Massachusetts," New England Public Policy Center Policy Reports 19-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    2. Min Park, Jung & Metraux, Stephen & Culhane, Dennis P., 2005. "Childhood out-of-home placement and dynamics of public shelter utilization among young homeless adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 533-546, May.
    3. Kevin Corinth & Grace Finley, 2020. "The geography of unsheltered homelessness in the city: Evidence from “311” calls in New York," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 628-652, September.
    4. Sara Nourazari & Kristina Lovato & Suzie S. Weng, 2021. "Making the Case for Proactive Strategies to Alleviate Homelessness: A Systems Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Guy Johnson & David C. Ribar & Anna Zhu, 2017. "Women's Homelessness: International Evidence on Causes, Consequences, Coping and Policies," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2017n07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Goodman, Sarena & Messeri, Peter & O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2016. "Homelessness prevention in New York City: On average, it works," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-34.
    7. Flouri, Eirini & Buchanan, Ann, 2004. "Childhood families of homeless and poor adults in Britain: A prospective study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Heyman, Janna C. & White-Ryan, Linda & Kelly, Peggy & Farmer, G. Lawrence & Leaman, Tara Linh & Davis, Henry J., 2020. "Voices about foster care: The value of trust," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    9. Timothy M. Diette & David C. Ribar, 2018. "A Longitudinal Analysis Of Violence And Housing Insecurity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1602-1621, July.
    10. He, Yinghua & O'Flaherty, Brendan & Rosenheck, Robert A., 2010. "Is shared housing a way to reduce homelessness? The effect of household arrangements on formerly homeless people," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, March.
    11. Gurdak, Kristen & Bond, Lynden & Padgett, Deborah & Petering, Robin, 2022. "Transitioning to independent living: Experiences of homeless young adults in rapid rehousing," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    12. Anson Wong & Jerry Chen & Renée Dicipulo & Danielle Weiss & David A. Sleet & Louis Hugo Francescutti, 2020. "Combatting Homelessness in Canada: Applying Lessons Learned from Six Tiny Villages to the Edmonton Bridge Healing Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-19, August.
    13. Angelina L. DeMarco & Rebecca Hardenbrook & Jeff Rose & Daniel L. Mendoza, 2020. "Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts on Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Environmental Justice and Health Vulnerability in Salt Lake County, Utah," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-16, November.
    14. Yeeli Mui & Bruce Y. Lee & Atif Adam & Anna Y. Kharmats & Nadine Budd & Claudia Nau & Joel Gittelsohn, 2015. "Healthy versus Unhealthy Suppliers in Food Desert Neighborhoods: A Network Analysis of Corner Stores’ Food Supplier Networks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, November.
    15. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2004. "Wrong person and wrong place: for homelessness, the conjunction is what matters," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, March.
    16. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2019. "Homelessness research: A guide for economists (and friends)," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-25.
    17. Christian King, 2018. "Food insecurity and housing instability in vulnerable families," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 255-273, June.
    18. Canham, Sarah L. & Donovan, Morrison & Rose, Jeff & Jones, Shannon & Garcia, Ivis, 2023. "Transportation needs and mobility patterns of persons experiencing homelessness following shelter decentralization," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. William N. Evans & David C. Phillips & Krista Ruffini, 2021. "Policies To Reduce And Prevent Homelessness: What We Know And Gaps In The Research," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 914-963, June.
    20. Ivis García, 2024. "Understanding the Housing Preferences of Older Adults: Insights from a Study on Micro-Housing in Salt Lake City, U.S," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4840-:d:380557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.