Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) providers are uniquely challenged to effectively address the health care needs of individuals who face extraordinary hurdles to managing their care. This is complicated by the difficulty of determining the impact of individual programs and services, planning the best use of limited resources, and presenting a compelling, data-driven argument to potential funders. The HCH Costing Tool was created by economists and researchers Donald Shepard and Cynthia Tschampl at Brandeis University to address this issue and help HCH grantees conduct a cost-benefit analysis of existing and potential programs.
What is the Costing Tool?
The HCH Costing Tool is an Excel based tool designed and formatted to make the process as simple as possible and uses data that should be readily available to program administrators. Typically, each program is evaluated independently by service, so case management would be evaluated separately from supportive housing or a mobile medical program.
Where can I get more information on the Costing Tool?
For more information on the HCH Costing tool, please check out the resources listed below.
- A Costing Tool You Can Use: Demonstrating the Value of Services for People Experiencing Homelessness. This webinar brings in the Costing Tool developers to describe how to use it and gives a step-by-step example of a program cost benefit analysis.
- HCH Costing Tool Overview. This document provides a summary of each step of the costing tool, including a description of its capabilities and the data needed for each calculation, and why this might be useful for an HCH.
- Summary of Data Required. This document contains a list of the data that is required for each measure in the Costing Tool and which tabs it should be entered on, as a quick reference.
Where can I find the tool?
If you are interested in using the HCH Costing Tool, we ask that you fill out a brief form and agree to complete a follow-up survey after you have used the tool. This will help us to learn how you are using the tool and make sure it is meeting your needs. Once you complete the request form, you will receive an email containing the Excel based tool.