Health and Housing Study Receives Renewal Grant

The City of Chicago recently received a renewal grant in the amount of $1,378,384 to continue its Health and Housing Study. The study is an extension of HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program and focuses on HIV/AIDS clients' health status as it relates to housing. The study hopes to show how the health of HIV/AIDS clients improves when they have decent, stable housing and support services, versus clients who only receive support services.

Study's structure and intent

The Housing and Health study is a multi-site, multi-agency research collaboration. The goal of the project is to examine the impact of providing housing for homeless or unstably housed people living with HIV on their disease progression and their risks of transmitting HIV. Findings from this project will contribute to knowledge about how to prevent further spread of HIV and improve the health of homeless or unstably housed people living with HIV.

The research project is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the housing voucher portion is funded by HUD. In addition to three HUD grantee agencies, Research Triangle Institute (RTI), Columbia University (New York), and Emory University (Atlanta) are also collaborating on this project.

The project enrolls and follows participants for 18 months. Participants are recruited from the three HUD-funded grantees (i.e., study sites) in different areas of the country who are providing HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS) housing. Approximately 1000 people living with HIV were recruited from the housing sites for the study, with one-third of these coming from each of the study sites. Each study site has two groups: A treatment group and a comparison group. A project-sponsored lottery determines which group each participant will be in. The treatment group consists of participants who will receive Housing and Health Study housing vouchers, and the comparison group will consist of participants who receive assistance finding housing according to local standard practice.

After study participants are determined to be eligible for HOPWA housing, they are interviewed and answer a questionnaire about the places they have lived, health and lifestyle, social services use, problems getting services, HIV risk behaviors such as sex and drug use, and other issues. During the course of the 18-month study, they go through two counseling session, provide blood samples, and fill out further questionnaires. They develop a risk reduction plan, and are counseled on medications and risk reduction.

Everyone enrolled in the study receives the normal and customary services provided to this population, including appropriate social services and assistance in obtaining housing. Participants in the comparison group are not denied access to housing and receive housing as soon as it becomes available through the housing agency’s normal and customary provision of housing resources.

Learn more:

• HUD Office of HIV/AIDS Housing (www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/aidshousing)
• Chicago Department of Health, Division of STD/HIV/AIDS (http://egov.cityofchicago.org)