In 2024, TAC was contracted by Homeless Strategic Initiatives (HSI) to explore the need for stabilization services for a subset of unhoused individuals experiencing active substance use and undertreated serious mental health conditions. TAC worked with the area’s largest Medicaid managed care organization and with local street outreach, medical respite, and recovery housing programs; conducted a national scan of programs effectively serving and stabilizing this population; and interviewed members of this population on what they want and need to support them in achieving their goals, including those related to health and wellness. TAC produced a report, The Role of Stabilization Programming in Successful Transitions from Homelessness, which analyzes emergency service utilization data and themes from key informant interviews and offers high-level recommendations for engaging people with active substance use, serious mental illness, and chronic health conditions in stabilization services.   

TAC also produced two previous reports for HSI (under its former name, the Homeless Strategy and Solutions Initiative), in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Resolving Homelessness: The Critical Need for a Substance Use Disorder System of Care (2022) described the essential features of an SUD system of care and recommended initial cross-system alignment and coordination actions to meet the treatment, service, and housing needs of people with SUDs experiencing homelessness in the Portland Metro Area. The Role of Employment in Ending Homelessness (2023) outlined barriers and gaps in the availability of supported employment programming for people with SUDs who had exited homelessness through U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care affordable and supportive housing, and offered high-level recommendations.