Over-Time Changes in Violent Victimization Rates, Perpetrators, and Locations Among Formerly-Homeless Adults in Permanent Supportive Housing

Background and Purpose: Homeless individuals experience high rates of physical assault. Increased victimization may be the result of many factors, including previous trauma experiences, subsistence survival strategies, and social factors (e.g., exposure to perpetrators while living on the streets, other non-secure locations like shelters). This study explores the potential impact of permanent supportive housing (PSH) on violent victimization among residents over time as a function of changes in place of perpetration and perpetrator type.

Methods: These findings come from a longitudinal study of homeless adults moving into PSH in the Los Angeles, CA area. Baseline interviews were conducted prior to or within 5 days of moving in, with follow-up interviews at 3, 6, and 12 months after move-in. At baseline, 421 persons were enrolled; 91% of respondents were retained at 12 months. Interviews covered a variety of topics, including experience of physical assault, location of assault, and assault perpetrators in the previous 3 months. These results present descriptive statistics of assault variables over time.

Results: At baseline, 17% of participants reported being physically assaulted in the past 3 months; 78% reported physical assault occurring outside and 11% being assaulted in a shelter; 63% were victimized by strangers and 10% by someone living or staying near them (neighbor). At 3 months post move-in, overall physical victimization experiences dropped to 9%; rates of assaults experienced by non-heterosexual individuals increased to 21%; the most common location for assault was outside (65%), and no one reported being assaulted in their home or another indoor location. Also at 3 months, strangers continued to be the primary perpetrator of victimization (65%), followed by friend (12%), and neighbor (9%). At 6-month follow-up, assault rates were 10%, the most common location remained outside (61%), and while strangers continued to be the major perpetrator of assault (71%), victimization by a neighbor increased to 21% from prior interviews. At 12 months, overall victimization was at 10%; victimization outdoors dropped to 34% and stranger perpetration to 45%, but more individuals reported experiencing victimization in their home (10%) and by neighbors (24%).

Conclusions and Implications: Housing may directly impact rates of victimization in this sample, possibly due to changes in perpetrator type. Overall, victimization was reduced after participants entered housing. This may be attributed to reductions in exposure to particularly risky social environments (e.g., on the streets in high-risk neighborhoods). However, after moving in to housing, physical victimization continues to occur most frequently in outdoor locations and be perpetrated by strangers. Among those experiencing physical assault while housed, the risk of being victimized by a neighbor appears to increase over time. PSH is an effective intervention in reducing chronic homelessness, but it is important to consider other risks to overall health and wellbeing, such as social risks related to victimization by neighbors. Additionally, it is possible that individuals in PSH locations with high crime rates may experience increased risk of violent victimization after housing, related to overall neighborhood risks. Intervention implications and future research are further discussed.