Research suggests that housing combined with mental health services is an effective intervention for helping homeless persons with psychiatric disorders, addictive disorders, or both to access and maintain community housing . Once housed, a substantial proportion of these individuals maintain community housing for significant periods. In a five-year longitudinal study of 2,937 homeless persons with serious mental illness, Lipton and colleagues  found that 75% of their sample remained continuously housed at the one-year follow-up period and 50% remained housed at the five-year follow-up period. Although these figures are promising, far too many individuals return to homelessness after being housed.