Evaluation of the Chicago-Cook County Flexible Housing Pool Program
(2022 - Ongoing)
CURL is working in partnership with the Center for Health Equity and Innovation and Cook County Health to facilitate an evaluation of the Flexible Housing Project (FCP) program. The Flexible Housing Pool (FHP), coordinated by Chicago Center for Housing and Health addresses health and housing aims to decrease utilization of emergency services and hospitalizations by connecting people to stable housing and the supportive services they need in order to improve health outcomes.
The program also expands the definition of homelessness in order to get more people stably housed, all while creating new affordable housing units throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. The Flexible Housing Pool engages directly with landlords in order to maintain healthy neighborhood relationships and provide landlords with peace of mind by filling units with guaranteed on-time rental payments, all while knowing that they are supporting FHP clients to get healthier and stay engaged in care. The program is modeled on a Los Angeles program that successfully housed 3,000 individuals and saw a reduction in emergency room visits, inpatient stays and the use of mental health services. The Flexible Housing Pool was developed in collaboration with Cook County Health and the City of Chicago and has support from several stakeholders from various sectors to focus on a new approach to addressing homelessness. All sectors that impact homelessness are part of the solution to ending homelessness.
The goal of the evaluation project is to assess the activities and implementation of this program. The project objectives are to describe the care coordination model utilized by the FHP program staff; to examine and document the model's structure and development; to investigate the extent to which the original program model and its key components are being implemented as planned across the outreach, bridge housing, and permanent housing stages in the process of the FHP model; and to document the lived experiences of participants served by the Flexible Housing Pool.
Research Team:
A. Ward, CURL
C. George, CURL
C. Callahan, Graduate Fellow
A. Fleenary, Graduate Fellow
B.T. Nguyen, Graduate Fellow
A. Walker, Undergraduate Fellow
Community Partners: