HUD's Supportive Services Demonstration, also known as Integrated Wellness in Supportive Housing (IWISH), is a demonstration to test structured health and wellness supports for HUD-assisted elderly residents. IWISH aims to promote aging in place and improve housing stability, wellbeing, health outcomes, and to reduce unnecessary or avoidable healthcare utilization associated with high healthcare costs. IWISH consists of a full-time Resident Wellness Director and half-time Wellness Nurse who proactively engage residents and implement a formal strategy for coordinating services to meet residents’ needs. IWISH was being implemented in forty Multifamily housing sites across seven states.

HUD designed a cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to rigorously evaluate IWISH. Eligible elderly-restricted or elderly-designated Multifamily properties were randomly assigned to a treatment group that implemented the IWISH model or a control group that continued business-as-usual, which included varying degrees of ongoing service coordination. The evaluation includes process and impact studies: The process study assess fidelity to the IWISH model, documents successes and challenges to implementation, and answers important questions related to resident health, wellbeing, and housing. The impact study links HUD data with and Medicare/Medicaid claims data to measure the impacts of IWISH on healthcare utilization and housing stability. The original demonstration ran from October 2017 to October 2020, resulting in two interim reports and a comprehensive report detailing the impact analyses. The demonstration and evaluation were extended for an additional two years in the original sites. The extension includes additional qualitative work with staff and residents and further quantitative analysis of HUD and Medicare/Medicaid claims data. A fourth and final comprehensive report, including an analysis of impacts over the entire study period, will be provided at the conclusion of the study.

Link to the IWISH project page, here

Note: The status of this project is ongoing.

Homelessness and Special Needs Services