Abstract:

This Positioning Paper describes the research design for a study on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of homelessness prevention and support programs operating in Western Australia. It also provides the reader with a brief review of the relevant literature and of the policy context which informs the study. The study involves extensive collaboration between researchers, community service organisations and program administrators. Against this background, an additional aim of the Positioning Paper is to describe the nature of this collaborative research approach and to explain how such an approach provides benefits to participating agencies, program administrators and to researchers alike. The ‘effectiveness’ of a homelessness prevention or support program refers to the extent to which the program in question achieves better outcomes for its clients. In an ideal world, the effectiveness of a homelessness prevention and support program would be assessed as the difference between outcomes achieved by clients on the program relative to those that would have been attained had the client not received support under the relevant program. However, data limitations in the homelessness field typically preclude the estimation of such differential effects and so, instead, the effectiveness of homelessness programs is typically measured on a before- and after-intervention basis.