More than 150,000 U.S. families are homeless each year. The number has been going down, in part because of a program known as rapid rehousing, which quickly moves families out of shelters and into homes.
But new research by the Obama administration finds that for many families, rapid rehousing is only a temporary fix.
It seemed like a good idea back in 2009 — when the recession had pushed thousands of families into homelessness. Rather than stay in shelters, families would get rental assistance for a few months — maybe a year — until they could get back on their feet.
"What rapid rehousing did is say from the moment a family walks in, how can we get you out of here as quickly as possible and back into a home of your own," says Jennifer Ho, a senior adviser on housing and services at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
[For more of this story, written by Pam Fessler, go to http://www.npr.org/2015/07/07/...only-a-temporary-fix]
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