Social network change after moving into permanent supportive housing: Who stays and who goes?

Social networks influence health/mental health outcomes among persons experiencing homelessness. Moving into permanent supportive housing (PSH), an effective solution to chronic homelessness, may quickly disrupt social relationships created on the streets, particularly among persons who have experienced chronic homelessness. Understanding social network change – that is, short term volatility or turnover in individual networks– during the critical first months after moving into PSH is important because this is likely to be a time of social network volatility, and because social relationships may play a key role in ensuring people are able to live happy and healthy lives as they reside longer-term within PSH.