LongHome: desarrollo de una herramienta para la medición de impacto de los servicios de atención a personas sin hogar

Abstract

Many authors underline the need to improve the evaluation mechanisms on homelessness response programs, specifically in the European context. The improvement of monitoring and evaluation processes would allow the characterization of homogeneous subgroups within the homeless population and the identification of the pathways in and out of homelessness. The LongHome tool enables to standardize an impact evaluation method addressed to homelessness response programs, and to analyze the effectiveness of each intervention. LongHome operationalizes the ETHOS typology (European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion) through a longitudinal evaluation allowing to keeping track of the residential status in three moments in time, prior to the intervention; at the end of the intervention; and, with the aim of assessing the mid-term effect of the intervention, two years after. The tool is grounded in the theoretical framework of the new orthodoxy, assuming that changes in residential status are associated to variations in access to formal support, informal support and personal capacity. The approach enables to improve the understanding of variations in residential status and the effect of intervention programs on homeless population. The tool has been tested in two Spanish programs for homeless population in Valencia and it turned out to be effective, improving monitoring and evaluation in both structures