The Veteran Housing Study
VA Puget Sound Health Care System
VA Bedford Health Care System
The Evictions Research Network, UC Berkeley
Thank you for your interest in the Veteran Housing Study. Stable housing is fundamental to mental and physical health. Eviction means being forced to leave, being kicked out, removed or forced to leave your home. Eviction represents a major source of housing instability. This study fills major gaps in our understanding of how evictions affect homelessness and health for Veterans.
Below is a summary of the different aspects of this study. We will update this site periodically with findings. Please check back or contact us if you have questions.
Data Set: We will use a dataset to compare housing and health outcomes in matched cohorts. The matched cohort means we will compare two groups of similar people- one group that has lost housing and a similar group that did not lose housing. Our working hypothesis (best guess): (H1.1) Veterans who were evicted were more likely to experience subsequent homelessness, diminished physical and mental health, and to generate more costs to the VA than Veterans who were not evicted.
Interviews: We will interview up to 30 Veterans who have been evicted in the past 2 years to inform the survey and human centered design sessions.
Surveys: We will survey Veterans who have lost their housing and Veterans who did not lose their housing to examine the association between evictions and patient reported outcomes. We will survey participants at two points, 6 months apart. Working hypothesis (best guess): (H2.1) Veterans who were evicted will have less favorable patient reported outcomes than Veterans who were not evicted.
Human Centered Design Session and Pilot study: We will have a workshop with Veterans and VA housing staff, who have previously lost their housing to give input on how to prevent other Veterans from being evicted.
The process we will use is called Human Centered Design. Human Centered Design is a process where we prioritize human needs, emotions, values and behaviors over any other goal or priority. We want to use the input from the human centered design sessions to complete a pilot study in the Puget Sound region of Western Washington. The goal is to connect Veterans with VA housing services before they lose housing.
We will post updates and preliminary results when they are available. If you would like to be notified when new results are available, please email vhapughousingstudy@va.gov or call (206) 277-4797.
