Addressing racial and ethnic disparities in premature exits from permanent supportive housing among residents with substance use disorders

TL;DR

This study finds that substance use disorders increase the risk of leaving permanent supportive housing early, but the effect varies by race and ethnicity.

Contribution

The study reveals racial/ethnic disparities in the relationship between substance use disorders and housing instability in a large VA housing program.

Findings

Residents with substance use disorders had a 1.3 times higher risk of negative housing exits compared to those without.

Other/Mixed race residents with SUDs had a 6.4 times higher risk of negative exits, suggesting significant disparities.

Tailoring SUD services to cultural needs may help reduce these disparities in housing outcomes.

Abstract

Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is an evidence-based practice for reducing homelessness that subsidizes permanent, independent housing and provides case management—including linkages to health services. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are common contributing factors towards premature, unwanted (“negative”) PSH exits; little is known about racial/ethnic differences in negative PSH exits among residents with SUDs. Within the nation’s largest PSH program at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we examined relationships among SUDs and negative PSH exits (for up to five years post-PSH move-in) across racial/ethnic subgroups.

We used VA administrative data to identify a cohort of homeless-experienced Veterans (HEVs) (n = 2,712) who were housed through VA Greater Los Angeles’ PSH program from 2016–2019. We analyzed negative PSH exits by HEVs with and without SUDs across racial/ethnic subgroups (i.e., African American/Black, Non-Hispanic White, Hispanic/Latino, and Other/Mixed [Asian, American Indian or Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and multi-race]) in controlled models and accounting for competing risk of death.

In competing risk models, HEVs with at least one SUD had 1.3 times the hazard of negative PSH exits compared to those without SUDs (95% CI: 1.00, 1.61). When stratifying by race/ethnicity, Other/Mixed race residents with at least one SUD had 6.4 times the hazard of negative PSH exits compared to their peers without SUDs (95% CI: 1.61–25.50). Hispanic/Latino residents with at least one SUD had 1.9 times the hazard compared to those without SUDs, also indicating a strong relationship with negative PSH exits; however, this association was not statistically significant (95% CI: 0.85–4.37). Black residents with at least one SUD had 1.2 times the hazard compared to those without SUDs (95% CI: 0.85–1.64), indicating no evidence of an association with negative PSH exits. Similarly, Non-Hispanic White residents with at least one SUD had 1.1 times the hazard compared to those without SUDs (95% CI: 0.75–1.66).

These findings suggest relationships between SUDs and negative PSH exits differ between race/ethnic groups and suggest there may be value in culturally specific tailoring and implementation of SUD services for these subgroups.

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