University receives $300K grant to evaluate housing initiative

A team of Delaware State University researchers recently received a grant for $300,000 to conduct an evaluation of the Healthy Housing Initiative (HHI) of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), which aims to reduce homelessness and chronic homelessness through a novel combination of health and housing services.

The team includes Dr. Xuanren Goodman (Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice) as the Lead Program Evaluator and Dr. Cynthia Newton (Director of Partnerships and Programs for Biomedical, Behavioral, and Allied Health Center) as the Associate Program Evaluator. Dr. Dorothy Dillard and Dr. John Balzarini will also serve as Evaluation Consultants for the project evaluation. The grant award comes from Catholic Charities USA.

On June 6, the team of DSU researchers met with HHI leaders to discuss the initiative’s mission, as well as plans and goals for the evaluation, in a kick-off meeting.

“We are excited to collaborate with DSU on the evaluation of Catholic Charities USA’s Healthy Housing Initiative pilot,” Sister Donna Markham, President and CEO of CCUSA said. “DSU’s Center for Health Disparities, with its solution-based focus, represents an ideal partner in assessing the holistic coordination of case management, social services, and permanent housing placement in the efforts to reduce chronic homelessness.”

HHI is currently active in the areas of five pilot cities, through the CCUSA agencies in Detroit, Las Vegas, Portland, Spokane, and St. Louis. The initiative aims to reduce chronic homelessness and hospital readmission rates in these cities by 20% and 25% respectively, and to connect 35% of those housed with primary and behavioral healthcare providers, all by 2025.

“We are so excited to be working with Catholic Charities USA to evaluate their Healthy Housing Program,” Dr. Goodman said. “Their program seeks to help the homeless by providing housing as well as healthcare services to those in need. Importantly, their program aligns with DSU’s ultimate vision to serve the community.”

The project evaluation will adopt a broad scope for assessment, which includes data collection on hospital and E.R. use and expenses, health outcomes, and demographics, with an emphasis on identifying possible health disparities and investigating aspects of lived experience through a mix of quantitative and qualitative research.

Furthermore, the project evaluation will leverage resources from the newly established Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research Center (IHER), which provides a new support structure for health disparities research and community engagement-related research across DSU. The Center will provide software and technical support through the center’s licenses for multiple quantitative and qualitative analysis software.

“DSU’s growing research infrastructure makes our university perfectly suited to evaluate this promising initiative,” Dr. Goodman said. “For example, the newly established IHER Center will provide cutting-edge software and technical support that will aid the evaluation and, as a result, improve the Healthy Housing Program.”

Moreover, DSU researchers anticipate that new academic and sociological discoveries can emerge from the evaluation of this ambitious and novel program, which seeks to address the many issues associated with homelessness, from housing to healthcare, on a national scale.

“This project with Catholic Charities USA will be an extraordinary partnership,” Dr. Newton said. “I am honored to be involved with it in addressing the circumstances of the chronically unhoused. The venture between CCUSA and DSU portends greater things to come as we work to make a difference in our communities and country.”