Predictors of Permanent Housing for Sheltered Homeless Families

The authors analyze 10 years of data on homelessness to determine the characteristics of homeless families most likely to find permanent housing after leaving a shelter environment. They studied 1,156 families from 1983 to 1992 to determine where these families go after leaving the shelter and whether the pattern changed over time. Logistic regression analysis found that the larger the family size and being African American were factors that predicted a decreased likelihood of finding permanent housing. Families with one child were 1.5 times more likely to find permanent housing than were families with three children, and whites were 1.9 times more likely to find permanent housing than were African Americans. Furthermore, homeless shelter residents were five times more likely to find permanent housing in 1983 than in 1992, regardless of demographic predictors. Practice and policy implications are discussed.