The At Home/Chez Soi Project

Abstract

This report is the final Winnipeg Site Report of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi project. The research examined the sustainability of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi Housing First (HF) programs for homeless persons with mental illness leading up to and after the end of the demonstration phase of the randomized controlled trial. It covers the final period of the project when Sustainability of the project was being planned and implemented, and tells the sustainability story of the project—what happened and why. The objective was to examine to what extent the HF programs were sustained in terms of continuation, fidelity to the HF model, systems integration, and expansion, and to identify factors that facilitated or impeded sustainability outcomes. The findings in the report result from key informant interviews, focus groups, and HF fidelity self-assessment questionnaires from each of the service teams.

The Sustainability story is told across three periods of time: a Sustainability Planning period during the last year of the project; a Transition period when the programs were receiving interim funding and were gradually integrated into provincial systems; and a New System period following program integration. The Sustainability Story is followed by a brief overview of factors that impacted the success of sustainability at the Winnipeg site and Cross-Cutting themes and lessons that emerged.