The goal of the Supplementary Security Income (SSI)/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) model is to increase access to SSI/SSDI for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder. Data collected from states and communities that implement the SOAR model provide evidence that SOAR Works!

The SOAR Outcomes and Impact webpage highlights national and state-level SOAR outcomes since 2006. The webpage is composed of the following three sections:

  • An issue brief of the previous year’s national outcomes, which provides an in-depth look
  • An infographic of the previous year’s national outcomes, which provides an an at-a-glance look at annual and cumulative national SOAR outcomes
  • The SOAR Enhances Recovery by Empowering Local Communities infographic, which summarizes the many ways that SOAR impacts and enhances communities.
  • Sharing Our Successes submission box, which offers an opportunities for local communities to highlight their SOAR successes, to be shared in an upcoming issue of the SOAR eNews

Over the last 15 years, the SOAR model has been used to assist over 88,351 people who were experiencing or at risk of homelessness with applications for SSI and/or SSDI, the two disability income benefit programs administered by the Social Security Administration.

Of the applications assisted using SOAR, 65 percent, representing 47,751 persons, have been approved for SSI/ SSDI upon initial application since 2006. An additional 7,459 persons whose applications were denied initially were approved on reconsideration or at an Administrative Law Judge Hearing. Since 2006, the SOAR approach is responsible for assisting 55,210 persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness to access Social Security disability income benefits.

In 2020, there were 4,265 approvals on initial SOAR-assisted applications. Decisions on these applications were received in an average of 115 days in 2020 with an allowance rate of 65 percent, compared to the initial allowance rate of 30.8 percent for all persons aged 18-64 who applied for SSI or SSDI in FY2019. In 2020 alone, SSI/SSDI payments for the individuals served by SOAR brought over $518 million into the economies of participating states and localities.

This resource was first shared in 2018.

Citation

SAMHSA SOAR TA Center. (2018). SOAR outcomes and impact [Webpage]. Policy Research Associates. https://soarworks.samhsa.gov/about-the-model/oat-and-outcomes

(External Link, HTML)