Impacts of Permanent Supportive Housing Services

This report examines outcomes for participants of the Permanent Options for Recovery-Centered Housing (PORCH) program. PORCH provides evidence-based Permanent Supportive Housing services to adults with a history of mental illness and housing instability or homelessness at programs in Pierce County and Chelan and Douglas counties. Several key outcomes improved in a positive direction during the 12 month follow-up period. Pierce County PORCH clients experienced fewer new homeless episodes and had fewer days in State Hospitals, relative to their non-enrolled peers. Community psychiatric hospital stays and felony arrests decreased for Chelan-Douglas PORCH participants, relative to their peers. Most participants who remained in the program for at least 12 months were housed at some point after enrollment (94 percent) and reported improvement in quality of life indicators, like daily functioning and psychological distress. Due to the small number of participants, some of the outcomes failed to reach statistical significance.