195 - Evidence Amidst Adversity: Generating Evidence for Housing-First Approach Among Internally-Displaced Households in Colombia

Abstract Information: The impact evaluation assesses the effectiveness of a housing-first approach as a durable solution in a humanitarian crisis setting. Set against the backdrop of Colombia's increasing displacement crisis, Blumont’s Closing Gaps Activity, funded by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, aims to improve emergency assistance and protection for recently displaced persons in Colombia. Closing Gaps provides unconditional food assistance, WASH non-food items, and psychosocial support to all internally displaced people who arrive in the cities and are registered with Blumont. In 2023, Blumont was able to provide 6-months of rental support to 100 extremely vulnerable families across three cities that were registered with the National Victim’s Registry and met Blumont’s criteria. Blumont partnered with Causal Design to evaluate the impact of having 6 months of rental support in housing that satisfies a set of necessary habitability conditions on a household’s food security, psychosocial well-being, and financial sustainability. Employing a matching technique, we demonstrate the feasibility of conducting rigorous impact evaluations in complex environments with constraints such as limited sample size and non-random treatment assignment. Households receiving rental support were matched with eligible households that were not offered the treatment due to their late addition to the Victims Registry. The comparison group has similar characteristics to the treatment group and was selected based on scoring criteria defined by Blumont, ensuring that both groups satisfy the eligibility criteria for the treatment. Our findings aim to (1) improve Blumont’s programmatic and implementation strategy, (2) inform the gradual phase-out of rental support interventions to national agencies and municipal governments in Colombia, (3) contribute to the discourse on evidence-based durable humanitarian response to displacement, and (4) demonstrate that rigorous impact evaluations can be designed within operational limitations to answer an implementer’s learning objectives.