Youth in Calgary's Housing Programs: A Case Study

In this paper we evaluate the housing success realized by youth enrolled in a large, community-based housing program true to the philosophy of Housing First and attentive to the specific needs of youth. We examine the program in a non-experimental setting and so provide evaluations of the practical usefulness of such programs to system operators and policymakers. Our examination makes use of administrative data sets describing the experiences of youths with a wide variety of personal characteristics and homeless experiences. We evaluate rates of success in housing programs over a minimum of one year and for up to seven years. Evaluating success over a long time period makes it possible to define success as not only retaining housing but also establishing housing outside the system of care and so without case management.