Contact with service agencies is considered instrumental in assisting homeless individuals obtain entitlements, employment, and housing. To date, no studies have determined how effective service agency contacts are in predicting procurement of entitlements or eventually influencing the pathways into and out of homelessness. The proposed investigation will examine the degree to which service agency contacts, receipt of entitlements and other income are related to the course of homelessness for three population subgroups: men, women without children (women alone), and women with children. To achieve this objective, the proposed study will use an existing NIMH-funded three-panel, longitudinal data set collected on a probability sample of homeless adults in Alameda County, California. This prospective study tracked homeless adults for 15 months beginning in April 1991. The first panel or baseline data includes 564 homeless adults (i.e., 385 men, 101 women without children, and 78 women with children). The relationship between mental disorder, service utilization (agency contacts), receipt of entitlements, and other income to the course of homelessness will be tested. Then, controlling for influences of mental disorders, the relationship between patterns of service utilization and income will be compared for the three subpopulations. The contribution of service agency contacts to entitlement procurement and total income, and their subsequent contribution to pathways out of homelessness will be documented for all respondents as well as for the three subpopulations of interest.
