Family Unification Program Vouchers at the Intersection of Housing and Child Welfare Service Delivery: A Chicago Case Study

The Family Unification Program (FUP) is a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative implemented on the local level to provide housing vouchers for families and youth involved in the child welfare system. Chicago's Family Unification Program (FUP) is one of the largest and longest standing in the country. This paper is a process evaluation of Chicago's FUP that aims to understand: (1) How is the partnership between the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), and Housing Advocacy Program (HAP) structured? (2) How does the partnership between CHA and DCFS affect how FUP is implemented? and (3) How can aspects of this partnership be scaled-up in order to offer additional housing services to low-income families?

Data from 15 semi-structured interviews with FUP key informants and experts reveal that successful FUP implementation is dependent on a strong partnership between DCFS, CHA, and HAP. While currently Chicago's FUP leads the country in strong interagency collaboration, its mixed impacts reveal that interagency implementation challenges remain. Specifically, this study explores some of the key variables impending FUP's success, including implementation challenges and barriers to entry for FUP clients.

Overall, this research finds that FUP's program model is a useful starting point for further scale-up opportunities for housing and child welfare. Given the overlap between housing instability and placement into out-of-home care, this paper demonstrates how housing vouchers are a useful tool for servicing vulnerable families and preventing them from entering out-of- home care. Ultimately, this paper argues for the expansion of FUP and other housing resources.