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The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) is intended to provide services to assist in reintegrating homeless veterans into meaningful employment. In May 2014, U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with Avar Consulting, Inc. to conduct a formative evaluation of the HVRP program. The overall purposes of this evaluation effort were to: document the types of services and supports offered by HVRP grantees; identify potentially promising practices or models; conduct statistical analysis of HVRP administrative data collected by the grantees; and provide alternative potential approaches for future experimental and non-experimental evaluation of HVRP. Study findings are based on (a) a literature review, (b) site visits to 12 HVRP grantees, and (c) analyses of HVRP administrative data. Study results indicate HVRP grantees emphasize the importance of partnering with other service providers and establishing community collaborations to bring together the varied resources and services required to provide employment services and a range of other services to help homeless veterans achieve long-term self-sufficiency. HVRP grantees emphasize job readiness training, job placement services, limited funding of short-term training, case management, and provision of other supportive services. At the same time, HVRP grantees typically reach out to partners for more substantive and costly services, including provision of longer-term education and training (sometimes leading to certification and degrees), subsidized transitional/permanent housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, childcare, and a host of other supports. Grantees also stress the need for careful screening and assessment of homeless veterans during the intake process to ensure that new recruits are suitable and ready to benefit from the menu of services provided with HVRP funding. The report assesses data collection and reporting requirements for the HVRP program and provides suggestions on how requirements might be improved. Finally, this report explores a variety of approaches for conducting an impact evaluation of the HVRP program, including weighing challenges, costs, and likely benefits to a range of methods including experimental and non-experimental designs.

Key Takeaways

• Grantees carefully screen homeless veterans for enrollment in HVRP to focus program resources on those that are the most likely to be employable within the current program year.
• While all programs had a clear focus on job placement, retention, and moving homeless veterans toward permanent housing and long-term self-sufficiency, there was not a standard program structure or service delivery model across grantees visited.
• HVRP funds are not used to pay for housing assistance for homeless veterans.
• HVRP grantees did not use significant HVRP grant funds to pay for substantive education or training to upgrade occupational skills and long-term earnings.
• The extent of involvement and role of Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOPs) and American Job Centers (AJCs) varied substantially across HVRP grantees.
• HVRP performance measurement standards and requirements to exit program participants at the end of each program year have an effect on participant screening and selection, and the structure and delivery of services:
  • Grantees are selective (i.e., creaming/skimming) in terms of participant recruitment and enrollment in HVRP, typically, enrolling only employable homeless veterans with a strong likelihood of job placement prior to the end of the current program year.
  • Grantees tend to avoid enrollment of new participants near the end of the program year because of concerns regarding their ability to place individuals in jobs before the end of the program year.
  • Grantees are reluctant to provide longer-term and more substantive education and job training assistance to build human capital -- in part because of the costs of such assistance and the relatively modest HVRP funding levels, but also because of fears that participants will not complete training by the end of the program year, and will therefore be delayed in finding a job, which would adversely affect efforts to meet job placement and retention performance standards.
• Despite collection of job placement, retention, and housing outcomes for each HVRP participant and Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) careful monitoring of performance for each grantee by quarter/year, without an experimental design (featuring random assignment of homeless veterans to treatment and control groups) or a rigorous non-experimental design (featuring a carefully constructed comparison group), it is not possible to determine in an unbiased manner the impacts of HVRP services.

Research Gaps

• For example, a net impact evaluation of the program could be pursued at the same time that outcome studies are conducted and small modifications are made in selected locations. Next steps are to explore which of the options presented here are of highest interest and are feasible. Work can then be done to flesh out the details of the most promising approaches. (pages 143-144)

Citation

Trutko, J., O’Brien, C., Trutko, A., Barnow, B., Kaiser, J., Woolsey, L., Naumann, M., Wang, B. (2016). Avar Consulting. Formative Evaluation of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP): Findings from Literature Review, Site Visits, Analyses of Program Administrative Data, and Options for Future Evaluation Draft Final Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.