Premium
How do Housing Subsidies Improve Quality of Life Among Homeless Adults? A Mediation Analysis
Author(s) -
O'Connell Maria,
Sint Kyaw,
Rosenheck Robert
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1002/ajcp.12229
Subject(s) - subsidy , receipt , mediation , quality of life (healthcare) , psychosocial , voucher , public housing , psychology , supportive housing , environmental health , business , public economics , gerontology , economics , medicine , sociology , economic growth , psychiatry , social science , accounting , market economy , psychotherapist
Supported housing, combining rent subsidies with intensive case management, is associated with improvements in quality of life of homeless adults, but factors mediating their impact on quality of life have not been studied. Twelve‐month outcome data from a randomized trial of the Housing and Urban Development‐ Veterans Affairs Supported Housing program ( HUD ‐ VASH ) showed that access to a housing rent subsidy plus intensive case management ( ICM ) was associated with greater improvement in subjective quality of life than ICM alone. Multiple mediation analyses were applied to identify variables that significantly mediated the relationship between receipt of housing voucher and improvements in quality of life. Significant mediating covariates were those whose 95% bias‐corrected confidence intervals, when added to the model predicting improvement in quality of life, did not overlap zero. Increases in the number of days housed, size of social network, and availability of emotional support appear to mediate improvement in quality of life and account for 71% of the benefit attributable to having a rent subsidy. Improvement in subjective quality of life though housing subsidies is mediated by gains in both material and psychosocial factors. Mediating factors deserve special attention in supported housing services.