Program Monitoring Results of the City of Ottawa’s Homelessness Initiative

Objective: 

The current report presents a summary of the results emerging from the program monitoring effort undertaken by community organizations delivering programs that constituted the City of Ottawa’s Homelessness Initiative for the period of March 2001 – December 2002. The report presents the overall results of the program monitoring undertaken by programs in four identified clusters, eviction prevention, housing placement, transitional housing, and health and support services. 

Method: 

The method for program monitoring used in the project required direct service providers to record information on outputs (i.e., client characteristics and services delivered) and outcomes (i.e., changes in housing status and participation in community activities) and to submit this information on a monthly basis to CRCS for entry into a data base. Participating organizations and the HIT were provided with individual program reports on a quarterly basis and at the end of the program monitoring period, which summarized results on key outputs and key outcomes.

Results:

Over 10,000 persons served by programs in homelessness initiative on a continuous basis whereby almost one-fifth of individuals (18%) served by the initiative are new Canadians and almost one-quarter of cases served have received services from two or more agencies. 49% of individuals served by programs in the initiative are in permanent housing at service initiation while 46% are in permanent housing are at a very high and imminent risk of losing their housing. On a client level this report found that retention rates were at 80% over a six month period where over 1900 cases have been placed in permanent housing. Housing placement programs have placed over half of their clients in permanent housing and transitional housing programs have placed 50% of their clients into permanent housing. 

Recommendations:

Based on the findings a series of recommendations are proposed in regards to program planning and program monitoring.

Publication Date: 
2003