It seems like it was only yesterday, on a mild-winter afternoon in January 2020, that CCUSA’s Healthy Housing Initiative (HHI) was announced at an “Opportunity Starts at Home” National Press Club event in Washington, D.C. Now, the program is approaching its final quarter and continues to uncover best practices to serve the chronically homeless. 

The HHI premise is simple enough: Combine the affordable housing and case management expertise of Catholic Charities agencies with the primary care and behavioral health expertise of Catholic health systems to reduce chronic homelessness.  

HHI seeks to house, serve and treat 698 formerly chronically homeless persons by December 31, 2024, a goal of reducing homelessness by 20%; to reduce hospital utilization of the newly housed residents by 25%; and to connect 35% of the newly housed to primary care and behavioral health services. These numbers are based on the 2019 HUD Point in Time homeless count. 

The five HHI Catholic Charities agencies and their Catholic healthcare partners are:  

• Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan (Detroit) and Ascension Health,  

• Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada (Las Vegas) and Common Spirit Health,  

• Catholic Charities of Oregon (Portland) and Providence Health Systems, 

• Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington (Spokane) and Providence St. Joseph Healthcare, and  

• Catholic Charities Archdiocese of St. Louis and Mercy Healthcare and SSM Health. 

Not only did these five inspired agencies, with the leadership of their diocesan directors and bishops, seek to meet these goals, they also wanted to make newly housed, formerly chronically homeless persons fundamentally “better off” through the HHI intervention. To determine if that goal was achieved, HHI needed a skilled outside arbiter to analyze qualitative and quantitative data and report findings that withstand academic rigor and scrutiny.  

To do this, in April 2023, CCUSA engaged Delaware State University (DSU), a privately governed, state-assisted historically Black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU has worked closely with the CCUSA HHI team as well as staff and leadership from the five participating agencies. Using RedCap software, DSU created a secure data collection tool that meets HIPAA compliance standards. 

“The Healthy Housing Initiative is one way our network seeks to find and implement permanent housing solutions for chronically homeless persons, who are some of our most vulnerable neighbors” said Kerry Alys Robinson, CCUSA President and CEO. “We are pleased to have the research and analytical expertise of Delaware State University in examining HHI, to help our member agencies implement resident and data informed solutions.”  

DSU’s Healthy Housing Initiative research team is led by Dr. Xuanren Goodman, PhD, and Dr. Cynthia Newton, PhD, with assistance and support from graduate student Micah Shelton. The three have engaged HHI agency staff, focusing on case managers and resident service providers, to ensure solid data collection. DSU will join CCUSA staff for HHI agency visits to interview new residents, clients, case managers, agency and diocesan leadership, and Catholic health partners.  

“I am very proud of our partnership with Catholic Charities USA and their Healthy Housing Initiative” said DSU President, Dr. Anthony Allen. “Our research team was constructed to build an interdisciplinary approach to chronic homelessness that focuses on root causes and real-world solutions, and our DSU colleagues continue to set the standard.”   

While the HHI officially concludes on December 13, 2024, data and program analysis will continue well into 2025. Upon the release of a white paper, CCUSA plans to share and promote the findings with its network, the Catholic Health Association, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and other collaborators and interested parties. 

“CCUSA member agencies will use the best practices delineated in DSU’s Healthy Housing Initiative white paper to continue the pursuit of permanent solutions to the epidemic of homelessness in our country,” said Robinson. “We are hopeful about the outcomes and the future of this work.”