Evaluation is an integral part of the Sound Families Initiative. To measure the effectiveness of service-enriched housing in helping homeless families achieve stability, evaluators from the University of Washington School of Social Work are gathering data on families' experiences of being homeless, their progress toward self-sufficiency, and their quality of life after they leave transitional housing. In addition, the evaluation is helping identify the challenges that housing and service providers face and examine the initiative's impact on regional strategies to end homelessness.

The evaluation tracks outcomes at three levels -- system, organization, and client -- and describes change using case studies. The data is collected through a participatory process that involves multiple stakeholders in all stages of the evaluation, from initial planning and outcome development to interpretation of the findings.

Final Findings Summary: A Closer Look at Families' Lives During and After Supportive Transitional Housing - December 2007

This report summarizes final evaluation findings on all 1,487 families that entered Sound Families programs through June 2007, and more detailed data on 27 families who were followed for three years after exiting Sound Families units. Please click here to read the summary report of Sound Families final evaluation findings.

Based on their continued work, our evaluation partners thought it would be worthwhile to take a deeper look into the experiences of children in programs funded by Sound Families. In many ways, the data confirms what we at Sound Families have long suspected- that supportive housing benefits children in multiple ways:

• Prior to moving into supportive housing, half of homeless children attended more than one school in the previous year. By the time families left supportive housing, only 20% had attended more than one school; a year later the percentage dropped to 14%.
• Securing supportive housing had a positive effect on children's school absenteeism rates. At intake, 35% of children had missed at least three weeks of classes during the during the previous year; one year after exiting the program that number dropped to 11%.
• Families experienced a decrease in CPS involvement, from 18% at intake to 8% six months after exiting SFI. More families reunified with some or all of their children within six months of exiting SFI.

Breaking the Cycle: Serving Homeless Children in Supportive Housing - January 2007

This report takes a deeper look into the experiences of children in programs funded by Sound Families. A review of the research on issues pertaining to homeless children was conducted. Qualitative data was collected from interviews with staff at several Sound Families funded programs. And, data was reported based on the experiences of 1,911 children who have resided in Sound Families programs and the experiences of 444 children in 204 families who lived in any of the ten evaluation case study sites through April 2006.  The findings are compelling. Please click here to find out more about breaking the cycle. 

Early Exits: Lessons Learned from Families Asked to Leave Supportive Transitional Housing Programs - April 2006

This evaluation provides a close examination of those families who have left Sound Families units before successfully moving toward permanent housing, roughly 25 percent of the families in the program to date. The purpose of this study is to learn from the various factors which contribute to an unsuccessful exit, and examines a range of possible barriers from the system, organizational and client levels. Please click here to read our findings on those families asked to leave transitional housing programs.

A Closer Look at Homeless Families' Lives During and After Supportive Transitional Housing - August 2005

This report presents preliminary findings from the interviews conducted with families at ten case study sites as of December 2004. This report differs from the 2004 Preliminary Findings Report in that it presents a greater depth of data, and it is the first release of data on families after they have left the supportive transitional programs. Please click here to read the complete Evaluation.