At Home- News from Abt Associates' Housing and Communities Practice
Abt's Housing and  Communities practice: Delivering solutions to ensure vulnerable  Americans have a place to call home
 At Home is a quarterly e-newsletter from the Housing & Communities Practice at Abt Associates. Here you'll find the latest research results and expert insights about housing and community development issues. 
 
Summer 2014   

A 311 for Cities: National Resource Network Offers Economically Distressed Cities Customized Solutions 

By Sandy Cogan

 

Cities grappling with an array of difficult challenges--from weakened economies to failing school systems--will now have access to information and technical assistance resources through a new federal initiative--the National Resource Network (NRN). The pilot program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and led by a public-private sector consortium, is designed to be a one-stop, action-based resource for technical and policy assistance for local governments.  

 

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New Frontiers in Evaluation: Lessons for Designers and Funders of Housing Research (Part 1) 
By Jill Khadduri

 

In Part One of this column, Abt Senior Fellow Jill Khadduri highlights new ideas presented at the Abt-APPAM Forum on how to evaluate whether a particular policy or program works and how they apply to evaluations of housing programs.

  

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PowerPoints Take a Back Seat for More Engaging Training for Homelessness Programs

By Korrin Bishop

 

 

 

Utter the word "training" and the first image that typically comes to mind is information-laden slides that overwhelm the audience by the presentation's end. However, Abt Associates staff, in coordination with the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is breaking away from the traditional PowerPoint presentation, opting for more accessible and interactive resources that can be used by the 319 grantees implementing the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. SSVF is part of the VA's initiative to prevent and end homelessness among our nation's Veterans.  

 

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What We're Talking About

 

Rapid Re-housing Models Used by HUD Grantees

Jill Khadduri  

Presented at a meeting on developing common definitions and standards for rapid re-housing programs attended by officials from HUD, HHS, DOJ, VA, and Interagency Council on Homelessness in Washington DC, January 15, 2014.

 

What We're Writing About

 

Leaving Homelessness Behind: Housing Decisions Among Families Exiting Shelter

Benjamin W. Fisher, Lindsay S. Mayberry, Marybeth Shinn, and Jill Khadduri 
This article describes a study that uses qualitative interviews to examine homeless families' housing decisions and what makes particular options for homelessness assistance more and less attractive to them.
  

Moving to Opportunity's Impact on Health and Well-being Among high Dosage Participants

Shawn Moulton, Laura R. Peck, and Keri-Nicole Dillman

This article reports the health impacts of the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program for the subset of participants who were most likely to spend more time in low-poverty neighborhoods. Using the methodological approach developed by Laura Peck, the study finds that children whose profiles predict that they spent more time in lower-poverty neighborhoods experience higher neighborhood and housing quality, improved mental health outcomes, and better general health relative to their control-group counterparts.

 

How Does Public Assistance Use Affect Charitable Activity? A Tale of Two Methods

Laura R. Peck & Chao Guo 

In this article, the authors explore how receiving public assistance affects an individual's charitable giving and volunteering.  Using the 1994 to 2005 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and 2005 Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) data, the authors use a series of comparison group and propensity score matching approaches to overcome sticky issues of selection bias and to explore this question. 

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In House
by Jeffrey Lubell 
 
Jeffrey Lubell, director of housing initiatives

What's the End Game for Meeting America's Rental Housing Needs? Part III

 

In this third and final installment of his "In House" series on addressing the challenges of very low-income renters, Abt Director of Housing Initiatives Jeffrey Lubell focuses on identifying lower cost housing strategies.

 

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Upcoming Events
 
July 29 - 31, 2014
Renaissance Hotel
Washington, D.C. 
Due to high volume, there is currently a waiting list for registration.

September 15 - 16, 2014
Renaissance Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Speakers include Jeffrey Lubell, Abt Associates Director of Housing Initiatives, presenting on opportunities to serve more households more effectively by focusing on durable housing strategies.

Interested in Past Issues of At Home?
 
At Home is a quarterly e-newsletter from the Housing and Communities Practice at Abt Associates. Here you'll find the latest research results and expert insights about housing and community development issues.

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