With foundations in the Work Works model, Bridge House’s Ready to Work (RTW) program combines three elements—paid work, housing, and supportive services—to help people experiencing homelessness in and around Aurora and Boulder, Colorado, transition into employment and permanent housing and, if relevant, to remain in substance use recovery. In this report we present findings from the Urban Institute’s comprehensive process and impact evaluations of the program. We examine the program’s components and operations; its impacts on housing instability, incarceration, and employment; and implications for policy and practice.

Why This Matters

Housing instability, unemployment, incarceration, and chronic health issues—including substance use, mental health conditions, and disabilities—are deeply interconnected, often creating cycles that perpetuate poverty and inequality while costing taxpayers millions of dollars in emergency and public services. Programs that address these needs holistically, such as the Ready to Work program, have the potential to disrupt those cycles and help people achieve long-term stability. In addition to shedding light on this program’s effectiveness and key components, this evaluation provides valuable insights that practitioners can use to develop strategies that deliver meaningful and sustainable outcomes and ensure resources are invested where they can have the greatest impact.

What We Found

• The Ready to Work program is a promising intervention with positive outcomes. Graduates were significantly less likely to experience housing instability within 6 to 36 months of graduating compared with people who dropped out and people who were referred but didn’t enroll. Graduates also showed lower rates of postprogram incarceration (although these differences were not statistically significant). Lastly, 5 percent of graduates reported being employed at intake, and 64 percent reported having employment upon or after graduating, a statistically significant increase.
• Participation in RTW is associated with potential protective effects. During the program and immediately after graduating, participants who completed RTW (and who therefore engaged with the program longer than people who dropped out) experienced improved housing stability and reduced incarceration compared with people who dropped out and people who didn’t enroll. These effects may be associated with a sense of security or stability that comes with being enrolled in a structured program and/or early engagement with RTW services.
• People who dropped out of RTW showed consistently worse housing and incarceration outcomes compared with graduates and non-enrollees. Notably, they experienced homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration at higher rates before participating, all strong predictors of future homelessness and criminal legal system involvement. Beyond the observed preprogram characteristics, people who drop out may differ from graduates and non-enrollees on unmeasured factors (like motivation to complete the program), which could affect outcomes.
• Participants’ perspectives about the program were largely positive, and they identified staff as the most critical factor influencing program success, often seeing them as a make-or-break element. Participants credited staff for their dedication and support in meeting their needs, specifically participants in the Boulder program, which has been around longer, and where staff members have strong ties to the program, have connections to the community formed over many years, and are engaged in the work because they care about the people being served. However, some participants highlighted challenges, including disconnects between certain staff and participants, low pay for case managers, and underqualified personnel, which they felt impacted the quality of services provided. Participants also found RTW’s in-program housing support, paid transitional employment, and substance use treatment, along with its flexible timeline for completion and additional support for people on community supervision, to be especially helpful.
• The average public savings directly resulting from RTW are $10,629 per person in avoided homelessness-related services and $9,000 per person in avoided prison incarceration. With an average implementation cost of $32,000 per participant, the program may not appear “cost effective” based on these two outcomes alone; however, substantial public costs, like those associated with employment and emergency (hospital and jail) services, were missing from this analysis. In addition, RTW trainees generate a net economic benefit to society by paying taxes both during and after program participation through workforce participation. Factoring in these expenditures, which cost taxpayers millions annually, is necessary to capture the Ready to Work program’s true impact on public savings and could demonstrate its cost effectiveness.
• Ready to Work and similar programs can benefit from diversifying and expanding funding sources for housing services and employment support, investing in robust data management systems to track participant progress and attrition, collecting more granular data to support aftercare elements, and prioritizing strong relationships with government agencies to facilitate access to critical supplementary data. Regarding the scalability and replication of Ready to Work, program leadership should focus on replicating facets of the Boulder program, like strong hiring practices and diversified contracts to support employment, that have led to success in Boulder but have been absent in Aurora.

How We Did It

We matched data maintained by Bridge House on program enrollees and non-enrollees with data on housing needs from the Colorado Homeless Management Information System and data on incarceration from the Colorado Department of Corrections. We also conducted program observations, reviewed relevant program materials, and conducted semistructured interviews with key Ready to Work stakeholders, such as current and former participants, staff members, leadership, and community-based partners.