Satisfaction with residence and with life: When homeless mentally ill persons are housed

The disconfirmation model is used to specify hypotheses about the effect of housing type and housing preferences, of clinical status, social characteristics and personality on satisfaction with housing and with life. These hypotheses are tested with data collected from homeless mentally ill shelter users who were randomly assigned to either group or individual housing. As hypothesized, subjects were more satisfied with their residential accommodations after moving into permanent housing and liked independent housing more than group living. Housing satisfaction did not vary as a consequence of the discrepancy between type of housing preferred and obtained. Life satisfaction was related to personality measures but was not affected by the move into housing or by the type of housing obtained. These findings highlight the limits of applicability of the disconfirmation model, the need to treat satisfaction as multidimensional, and the importance of personality in explaining more general aspects of satisfaction.