Homelessness Prevention through Eviction Diversion in Houston: an RCT

This pilot will implement an RCT to assess the effect of a Houston, TX LSP’s “Know Your Rights” text messaging program both as a device to stimulate take-up of legal services and as a way of improving housing stability outcomes.

2023-07-31

2024-04-30

The primary outcomes are whether those who receive information about their housing rights and available legal services take up eviction prevention legal services more often and remain more housing-secure than those who do not.

To understand take-up of legal services, the research team will access publicly-available court data related to housing through an online court record search (which will also provide information on whether litigation was filed). These data will include counsel-of-record information that identifies the legal services provider as well as the specific attorney by name. The A2J Lab will also include survey questions to elicit whether participants accessed limited scope services, such as lawyer-for-a-day programs, brief advice clinics, or community-based legal self-help centers. These survey questions will also serve to validate court record data by asking about filings and attorney interaction. Understanding eviction case information, such as whether an eviction was filed and the outcome of that filing, will help to understand if this prevention mechanism is serving to reduce formal evictions.

To understand housing security and informal evictions, the A2J Lab will use surveys designed and successfully employed in other studies assessing the dimensions of housing security described above. Coupled with this survey data, the research team will access housing records from the HMIS and the public utility companies serving the area. The A2J Lab will define housing instability as relocation or becoming homeless within a year as measured by the surveys and administrative data.

Connective Texts is a texting service that sends residents information about how to access free resources in the Greater Houston area. People sign up to receive two to three text messages per week. Resources shared in these texts include food distributions, rent payment assistance, utility assistance, and legal support. Connective Texts currently has over 58,000 voluntary enrollees, many of whom learned about the program while applying for rent relief and direct assistance payments relating to COVID-19 hardships, which Connective coordinated for Harris County and the City of Houston.

In the pilot, one of the two to three texts Connective sends each week will ask recipients whether they self-identify as at-risk for eviction, as housing unstable, or as challenged by the conditions of their rental property or their landlord. Those that do so self-identify will then be asked if litigation of these issues is pending. Those that indicate litigation is not pending will receive information about the study and be asked to consent. The pilot will assess the attrition rate of those willing to consent to the study protocol. The A2J Lab will randomize consenting participants either to receive or not to receive Know-Your-Rights information via texts. Texts will include information about what actions may put a tenant at risk for eviction, what proactive steps a tenant can take when at risk of eviction, and information about how to access available legal services.

Randomization done in office by a computer

individual

No

100 individuals

100 individuals

50 individuals treatment, 50 individuals control

While the pilot will assess attrition rates, we can assume some attrition with a best guess of enrollment at 50 people per month for a period of two years. Assuming a worst-case rate of usage of legal services at 0.5 and two years of enrollment, a 0.8 power of detection would fall close to -0.075 from baseline. Assuming a relocation rate of 0.25, a 0.8 power of detection for housing stability would similarly fall close to -0.075 from baseline.

Pre-Analysis Plan