Pairing Data with New Infrastructure to Improve Local Capacity to Address Homelessness in Newark

Ensuring that people experiencing homelessness receive services tailored to their needs and the local housing environment is critical to ensuring their movement from shelter or transitional housing into permanent community-based housing. Housing navigators – caseworkers specialized in helping homeless families and individuals obtain permanent housing – are vital in these efforts, yet there is little evidence upon which to make decisions on how best to utilize their skills. We are therefore engaging in a data-centered strategic planning process that will enable New Community Corporation, a community development corporation in Newark, NJ, to hire a housing navigator to assist families in its 102-unit Harmony House transitional housing facility. This strategy’s foundation is a multi-methods approach combining quantitative homeless services data from Harmony House and across Newark with qualitative interviews with NCC clients, staff, and partners and a review of evidence-based practices around housing navigators. This project is being led by investigators from the Center for State Health Policy and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in partnership with New Community Corporation and is supported by a grant from the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH).