✪ Usability of a cross-system housing stability program for juvenile courts: A multimethod study of probation counselor perspectives

Abstract:

Background

Youth in contact with the juvenile legal system experience disproportionate rates of homelessness. While system contact is a critical intervening point, juvenile courts do not typically offer housing services. One solution is to refer youth to evidence-based, community-based services to meet housing-related needs, but a myriad of individual and organizational factors often impede court staff from making such referrals. Housing Stability for Youth in Courts (HSYNC) is a novel, cross-system service linkage model for court-involved youth facing housing instability. HSYNC was developed using codesign as a strategy to improve usability and incorporated evidence on juvenile court linkage strategies effective at increasing service referrals and improving outcomes.

Method

The current study utilized a multimethod approach to evaluate the usability of HSYNC from the perspective of juvenile probation counselors (JPCs) as one group of end-users. As part of the pilot implementation study, survey (N = 15) and semi-structured interview (N = 20) data were obtained from JPCs from four juvenile courts in one northwestern state.

Results

Survey results indicated good usability for HSYNC (mean implementation strategy usability scale score of 80). Themes from the interviews complemented survey findings, pointing to HSYNC as a value-added program that integrated well with existing probation practices. The housing navigator's approach was highlighted as a strong facilitator of program usability. Themes also provided greater insight into implementation barriers (i.e., individual and contextual factors) and areas for improvement (e.g., eligibility screening process).

Conclusions

Drivers of program usability and implications for program improvement to address identified implementation challenges to ensure the HSYNC model is effective and sustainable long-term are discussed.

Plain Language Summary

A study examining the key factors impacting successful implementation of a novel housing stability program to address homelessness risk for court-involved youth and their families.
Court-involved youth experience disproportionate rates of homelessness, yet housing services are not traditionally offered by juvenile courts. Court staff, such as probation staff, can refer youth to community-based services to meet their housing needs. Unfortunately, many factors complicate whether these referrals are made, including staff feeling overburdened by other work obligations and uncertainty about whether referring youth to community services fits within their job responsibilities. In this study, we surveyed and interviewed probation staff who were responsible for implementing a new referral-based housing stability program—Housing Stability for Youth in Courts (HSYNC)—to understand whether the program addressed previously identified barriers to referral-making. A unique feature of HSYNC is that there is a dedicated housing navigator, who works as a “linkage specialist” to support probation staff in making referrals while working directly with youth and families to access housing-related services in the community. Our findings suggest that, from the perspective of probation staff, HSYNC is considered to be a user-friendly program that is well-aligned with existing court practices. The housing navigator and their unique approach to working with probation staff, youth, and families was perceived as the strongest facilitator of implementation success; meanwhile, screening for program eligibility was the biggest barrier, pointing to the need for improvement before HSYNC is widely implemented. The persistent intersection of youth housing instability and court involvement calls for better coordination between juvenile courts and community agencies providing housing-related services. From the probation perspective, HSYNC offers a viable solution to meeting youths’ housing needs without creating additional workload burden for court staff.

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