title: What is "Support" in Supportive Housing: Client and Service Providers' Perspectives.
abstract: Supportive housing programs are proposed as a way of increasing housing access and stability for the chronically homeless, improving access to needed services, and decreasing vulnerability to HIV and other diseases. Little is known about residents' understandings of and experiences with different models of supportive housing and how they fit within residents' broader strategies to maintain housing. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 residents and 10 service providers from nine different supportive housing programs in Hartford, Connecticut. Data analysis explored residents' perceptions of and experiences with supportive housing programs in the context of strategies to access resources and receive emotional, financial, and other forms of support. Themes of independence, coercion, and choice pervaded participants' narratives of their experiences accessing services. Concerns with privacy influenced the types of relationships residents formed with program staff and clients. Findings illustrate the need for more ethnographic studies of how supportive housing services are delivered by community agencies and accessed by clients.
authors.affiliation: Jill Owczarzak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Julia Dickson-Gomez is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Convey is an independent researcher formerly with the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut. Margaret Weeks is the Executive Director of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Owczarzak
authors.affiliation: Jill Owczarzak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Julia Dickson-Gomez is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Convey is an independent researcher formerly with the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut. Margaret Weeks is the Executive Director of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dickson-Gomez
authors.affiliation: Jill Owczarzak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Julia Dickson-Gomez is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Convey is an independent researcher formerly with the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut. Margaret Weeks is the Executive Director of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Convey
authors.affiliation: Jill Owczarzak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Julia Dickson-Gomez is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Convey is an independent researcher formerly with the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut. Margaret Weeks is the Executive Director of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weeks
keywords: HIV/AIDS; community-based programs; homelessness; mental health and illness; social support