After seven years, the Northwest Institute for Children and Families’ evaluation is one of the most comprehensive qualitative longitudinal studies of family homelessness in Washington state. In short, it shows that housing-plus-services works:

• As of July 2007, the Sound Families Initiative had funded more than 1,445 units of service-enriched housing that have served nearly 1,500 families and 2,700 children.
  
  
• 75 percent of the families participating in the evaluation remained in the program until graduation.
  
  
• 68 percent of those families secured permanent housing.
  
  
• 57 percent of families increased their incomes during the program.
  
  
• Children in the program changed schools less often than they had previously: The percentage of children attending more than two schools in a year declined from 53 percent at intake to 5 percent at exit.

Sound Families has also spurred systemic improvements in the provision of housing and social services.

• Through the initiative, local housing providers, service providers, and property managers have formed more than 30 new partnerships, which will help improve the lives of homeless families over the long term. Tripling the number of service-enriched housing units in the region meant engaging new partners. Using a variety of techniques, from simple recruitment to advance funding commitments, Sound Families secured the participation of many nonprofit housing organizations that had not previously served homeless families, or that had done so only on a small scale.
  
  
• The Sound Families governance model has helped engage regional leaders. The diverse Steering Committee has provided guidance for seven years as the initiative has evolved and expanded its focus beyond the original housing-production goals to grapple with how best to help homeless families obtain permanent housing and improve their lives by other measures.
  
  
• The adoption of a very ambitious goal—tripling the amount of service-enriched housing for families in the region—required innovation. For example, Sound Families Steering Committee members helped change the state tax-credit allocation rules to allow developers to include homeless units in conventional housing complexes and to prioritize these mixed developments. The housing authorities also helped secure a federal government waiver that allowed the flexible use of Section 8 project-based vouchers, which have been essential to the initiative.

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