Family Options Study: Long-term Tracking Project

Abstract

The Family Options Study (2008-2016) is the largest experimental study of interventions for homeless families that has been conducted to date. The study produced strong evidence regarding the impacts of different housing and service interventions to address family homelessness, particularly the role of vouchers in improving the housing and life circumstances of homeless families. HUD funded the Family Options Study: Long-term Tracking Project with the primary purpose of determining if the original study sample of 2,282 homeless families (enrolled between 2010-2012) was still viable for a future round of in-depth data collection. Using the most recent contact information available for the sample from the last round of data collection (2014-2015), the research team spent six months attempting to locate the entire sample, updating the sample contact information, administering informed consent in an effort to expand the consent-to use PII file, and administering a brief tracking survey to families that were located. In total, 75 percent of the sample was interviewed, located, or determined to have viable contact information, and 48.7 percent of the sample completed the tracking survey during the 78-month tracking effort. The resulting final report provides an assessment of the viability of the sample, describes the research value of the data, and provides some basic descriptive information about the households that were surveyed during the 78-month data collection period. It is important to note that it is not yet clear whether the data on the 48.7 percent of families who completed the survey can be weighted to plausibly represent the entire study sample.

Keywords: Affordable Housing, Assisted Housing, HUD, Assisted Renters, Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8, Project-Based Section 8, Housing, Supportive Services, People with Special Needs, Homeless