Housing interventions for disadvantaged people in Norway
Mapping review
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Key message
The Norwegian State Housing Bank commissioned a systematic search from The Social Research Unit at the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services. The aim was to identify studies that investigated effects of or experiences with interventions that aimed at providing housing for, or make it possible to remain living in one’s dwelling among, disadvantaged groups in Norway.
Methods
We conducted a systematic search for empirical studies, employing any kind of study design, on the effect of or experiences with interventions aimed at providing housing for, or make it possible for disadvantaged people in Norway to remain in their dwellings. We searched in medical and social science databases. The search was conducted in May-June 2014.
Results
- We identified 1998 references in total. Among these, we considered 31 to be possibly relevant according to the inclusion criteria.
- We did not identify any randomised controlled studies.
- We identified only one study with a controlled design.
- Nearly half of the included studies investigated housing measures directed at drug addicted and/or homeless people. Many of the other studies we identified had limited information about both measures and population in the abstracts.
There is a need for studies with controlled designs to document any effect of social housing interventions on the possibilities of disadvantaged groups in Norway to enter the housing market and/or to be able to remain in their dwellings.
As we have not read the reports in full text, there might be more studies with controlled designs although this was not mentioned in the abstracts. The systematic search was limited to Norwegian studies. Possibly relevant international research on the topic is thus not included in this report.