Albuquerque's Community-Based Housing and Support Services Demonstration Program for Homeless Alcohol Abusers

Albuquerque's community-based housing and support services demonstration program is a prospective, randomized comparison of the efficacy of three intervention strategies for treating homeless persons with alcohol-related problems. The present paper defines the target population, describes the theoretical model underlying the intervention design, and provides descriptions of the interventions, which include the social model detoxification program established for the project and the extended intervention programs undergoing evaluation. The paper then identifies some of the unanticipated developments encountered in the early phases of the program and programmatic responses to these challenges. Lessons learned during this process are described, in hopes that they might prove useful to others striving to develop similar programs.