The Housing First intervention did not reduce the rate of deaths. There were 37 deaths out of 199 participants in the control group and 33 deaths out of 224 in the experimental group. Though the samples weren’t large, it was still a surprising, and sad, finding. “It was deeply traumatic for the team that was directly working with the folks that were dying, for sure,” said Jennifer Loving, the San Jose homelessness leader who advocates for permanent supportive housing. “You want to believe that there’s a happy ending.”34 The high death rate was demoralizing to permanent supportive housing
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