Difficult Definition
“Hard to house” residents are those with multiple complex problems, such as serious mental and physical ailments, addiction, domestic violence and histories of lease violations.
This brief explores the employment experiences of public housing residents during the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) partnership in the Family Case Management Demonstration. The Demonstration was an innovative effort to test the feasibility of providing comprehensive support services, including pre- and post-job help, for fragile public housing families.
Eight years after Chicago’s Transformation Plan inception, most residents were living in better housing and in substantially safer neighborhoods. However, nothing from the Panel Studies showed that these quality-of-life improvements translated into employment gains or increased earnings for CHA residents. The Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration implemented intensive support services to see if those employment outcomes could be changed.