Trial reportBMJ open2016
How did a Housing First intervention improve health and social outcomes among homeless adults with mental illness in Toronto? Two-year outcomes from a randomised trial.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Mental Health Rehabilitation Services: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Individual-Level Predictors for Becoming Homeless and Exiting Homelessness: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Associations of resilience with quality of life levels in adults experiencing homelessness and mental illness: a longitudinal study.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2021Trial
- Effect of a Housing Intervention on Selected Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Homeless Adults With Mental Illness: 24-Month Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2020Trial
- What is the perceived relationship between boredom and substance use among persons who are unhoused?PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Article
- Development and validation of a supported housing programme for homeless women with severe mental illness.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for reducing problematic substance use, mental ill health, and housing instability in people experiencing homelessness in high income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Campbell systematic reviews · 2025Review
- Neighborhood socioeconomic status and postpartum depression among commercial health insurance enrollees: a retrospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- The effectiveness of abstinence-based and harm reduction-based interventions in reducing problematic substance use in adults who are experiencing homelessness in high income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2024Review
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Housing First for Youth Intervention for Youth Experiencing Homelessness in Canada: Protocol for a Multisite, Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on the lives of people with severe mental illness-front-line community psychiatry workers observation from a provincial survey of assertive community treatment teams in Ontario, Canada.International journal of mental health systems · 2023Article
- Exploring the effect of case management in homelessness per components: A systematic review of effectiveness and implementation, with meta-analysis and thematic synthesis.Campbell systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Public Health Interventions to Address Housing and Mental Health amongst Migrants from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds Living in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The association between food insecurity and physical activity in adults with serious mental illness living in supportive housing.Preventive medicine reports · 2022Article
- Exploring Harm Reduction in Supportive Housing for Formerly Homeless Older Adults.Canadian geriatrics journal : CGJ · 2022Article
- Understanding the Health and Health-Related Social Needs of Youth Experiencing Homelessness: A Photovoice Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Mental Health Conservatorship Among Homeless People With Serious Mental Illness.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe studied the impact of a Housing First (HF) intervention on housing, contact with the justice system, healthcare usage and health outcomes among At Home/Chez Soi randomised trial participants in Toronto, a city with an extensive service network for social and health services for individuals who are experiencing homelessness and mental illness.
methodsParticipants identified as high needs were randomised to receive either the intervention which provided them with housing and supports by an assertive community treatment team (HF+ACT) or treatment as usual (TAU). Participants (N=197) had in-person interviews every 3 months for 2 years.
resultsThe HF+ACT group spent more time stably housed compared to the TAU group with the mean difference between the groups of 45.8% (95% CI 37.1% to 54.4%, p<0.0001). Accounting for baseline differences, HF+ACT group showed significant improvements over TAU group for community functioning, selected quality-of-life subscales and arrests at some time points during follow-up. No differences between HF+ACT and TAU groups over the follow-up were observed for health service usage, community integration and substance use.
conclusionsHF for individuals with high levels of need increased housing stability and selected health and justice outcomes over 2 years in a city with many social and health services. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN42520374.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.