Leading Learning Health Systems in the Asia Pacific: A Mixed-Method Evaluation of Health Professionals' Experiences in a Longitudinal Leadership Program.

Communication and coordination are critical to achieving common goals in any partnership, especially when addressing complex problems such as homelessness. Efforts to address homelessness require coordination across systems and service providers (). For example, enhancing access to mainstream benefits and services for individuals experiencing homelessness can be achieved in various ways, from facilitating communication between a caseworker in one agency and a benefits worker in another to more complex efforts such as implementing major simultaneous changes in the policies and practices of multiple agencies (). Given the involvement of multiple sectors (e.g., government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and healthcare and housing providers) in addressing homelessness, effective communication among all stakeholders is crucial to build trust and ensure mutual understanding of each stakeholder’s role, resources, and capacity (). Strong communication and coordination can help prevent duplication of efforts, optimize resource allocation, and enhance the overall impact of responses to homelessness. By prioritizing communication and coordination, policy and programmatic initiatives involving multiple partners can more effectively address homelessness. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is committed to ending homelessness among veterans (), and VA relies on effective partnerships between VA and community organizations as a key strategy to address homelessness. The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, established in 2011, is a partnership between VA and community-based nonprofit organizations (grantees) that provide rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention services to low-income veterans and their families. Rapid rehousing is a “housing model designed to provide temporary housing assistance to people experiencing homelessness, moving them quickly out of their experience of homelessness and into permanent housing in which they may be able to remain after the assistance ends” (). Through community-based grantees, the SSVF program provides services that include case management, assistance accessing both VA and non-VA health benefits, and temporary financial assistance (TFA), a short-term monetary benefit used to pay for rent, utility payments, security deposits, and other housing-related expenses that the veteran may have. Additional services include managing budgets, policies, and procedures, and helping veterans find housing. Grantees may also assist veterans in obtaining VA and other benefits, such as daily living or legal services; veterans may be referred by VA homeless service providers or contacted directly via outreach by the grantees. VA homeless service providers engage with grantees while also working with veterans through outreach services, intensive case management, and transitional housing, while connecting veterans with health services provided by both VA and community resources. Prior studies of the SSVF program have found that the provision of TFA is a cost-effective approach for addressing housing insecurity () and is associated with increased rates of stable housing (), lower healthcare costs (), and lower risks of all-cause mortality and suicidal ideation (). In addition, the SSVF program is associated with long-term housing stability ().