Evaluating the Impact of Emergency Maternity Housing

The process begins when an expectant month calls a home seeking housing. The maternity home caseworker will ask basic screening questions to determine eligibility. Those found ineligible are referred elsewhere. If the mom is eligible, the caseworker will send her a link to an online application asking a variety of questions surrounding her current housing and employment, health and mental health, other children, criminal justice involvement, etc. The application will include a brief consent form asking for permission to use her information. She will have the option of consenting or not. When she submits her response, the caseworker will be able to review her answers. If there are any answers that would make the mom ineligible at this point, the caseworker will call her and refer her to other local services. If she is still a good fit, the caseworker will call her and let her know that she is eligible but that they don't have any open beds, and that she will be put on a waitlist for the next available bed.

When a bed becomes available, a caseworker will call the top two moms on the waitlist and schedule a time for an in-person interview. They will conduct both interviews to confirm eligibility. After the interview, caseworkers might convene at the home to discuss whether the moms are good fits for group living (for example, the mothers are sometimes unwilling to abide by house rules and they might indicate hesitancy during an interview). If one is not a good fit, the caseworker will let her know she is ineligible and bring in the next mom on the list for an interview. Once two moms are found eligible, the caseworkers will put their names into a separate survey form, which on the backend will randomly assign one to treatment and one to control. The caseworker will call each mom back and let her know if they are going to be able to help her based on her randomization status. Control moms will be referred to other local services. Treatment moms will schedule a time to move in. Both consented and unconsented moms will be randomized the same - having the same odds of receiving services.

Note that three of the five homes will utilize the procedure above. The fourth and fifth homes will complete the same process up to the waitlist stage. Once a bed is available, the caseworker will call the top two moms on the waitlist to confirm they are still interested, then they will randomize them and let them know their status. Only the treatment mom will be brought in for an interview since this home is confident they will be able to determine eligibility based off of the phone and survey application screen and only need the interview to determine services for moms who will actually move into the home.

All moms will complete a follow up survey about one year after the estimated birth of the child (as reported as the due date at baseline).