Actually Measuring What Matters in Homeless Services

The Number That Obsessed Us

For years, we reported housing placements like they were the only thing that mattered. Placed 50 people this quarter—success! Placed 40—we're slipping.

But here's what I learned: a placement isn't an outcome. It's an output. An outcome is someone still housed a year later, building a life, not coming back into the system.

The Uncomfortable Truth

When we started tracking 12-month retention, our "success rate" dropped significantly. Turns out, we'd been placing people in housing that didn't stick. Fast placements that fell apart in months.

That was humbling. It also made us better.

What We Measure Now

We still track placements, but they're not the headline anymore. Here's what we actually look at:

• 12-month housing retention: Are people staying housed?
• Income at exit vs. entry: Did their financial situation improve?
• Returns to homelessness: How many people come back into the system within two years?
• Self-reported wellbeing: Do people feel their life is better?

That last one is controversial. It's subjective. Hard to aggregate. But it tells us something the other numbers don't.

The Data We're Still Missing

I want to know what happens to people who leave our program but don't succeed. Where do they go? What didn't work? That data is much harder to collect, but it might be the most important.

We're piloting follow-up surveys now. Early response rates are low, but we're learning. Every answer tells us something about how to do this better.