Case Proposal: Centralized Housing Intake

One way D.C. can enhance the performance of Rapid Re-Housing programs and lower the rate of individuals/families returning back to homelessness is to emulate the model that NYC has been following for the past few years. A few years ago NYC launched the Home to Stay program (Bornstein, 2014). Home to Stay is a partnership between New York’s Department of Homeless Services and four other organizations committed to fighting homelessness (Bornstein, 2014). Home to Stay uses an evidence-based protocol known as Family Critical Time Intervention which is intended to motivate individuals and heads of families over nine months to take an advantage of support services, such as addiction and mental health counseling, conflict mediation, and improvement of job prospects (Bornstein, 2014). The program follows an extensive and rigorous screening procedure in order identify and select the most vulnerable and needy homeless individuals and families who must have access to the supportive services the program provides (Bornstein, 2014). Though Home to Stay does not target the homelessness population as a whole, program expansion is a future possibility. While there is no concrete data that measures the performance of Home to Stay, testimonies from individuals and families that participated in the program indicate that there is a promising future (Bornstein, 2014). Individuals and families that were previously homeless believe that Home to Stay is a

In recent years, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have identified rapid re-housing as a critical strategy to meeting the national goal of ending family homelessness by 2020 (USICH 2013). As noted in a recent update of Opening Doors, the federal plan to end homelessness, "[US Department of Health and Human Services], HUD, [the US Department of Veterans Affairs], and USICH have joined forces to promote expansion of rapid re-housing as a part of community coordinated systems" (USICH 2013). Rapid re-housing, an intervention that helps homeless families exit shelters and get back into permanent housing quickly, provides short-term help with housing expenses (e.g., rent arrears, ongoing rent assistance, moving costs) and case management focused on housing stability. Rapid re-housing is a relatively new but, as early evidence shows, promising strategy that communities across the country are

First, it’s important to understand what permanent housing entails and it’s key elements. Second, there would need to be an affordable housing strategy. It is important to understand the financial barriers. Third, there needs to be support for permanent supportive housing as a system wide approach. This would include aligning the authority’s philosophy. The next step for the mental health authority is to articulate the need for Permanent Supportive Housing. Another important step would be to establish partnerships with housing agencies. Organizational aspects of the project are often the last to be addressed, yet they are the most essential to leading the process. Permanent Supportive Housing includes a developer, and an owner who will operate the project. Permanent Supportive Housing projects will also include one or more service

This measure will finance the construction of supportive and affordable housing for homeless people in the City of Los Angeles. Permanent supportive housing is a type of housing that has supportive on-site services like case management and physical and mental health care programs (“Yes On HHH Help House the Homeless”, n.d.). According to Rog et al. (2014) permanent supportive housing is a proven intervention that has reduced homelessness, increased housing tenure, and decreased emergency room visits. Permanent Supportive Housing is effective, recent research show that homeless people that are involved in this program remained housed. In addition, in 2015, within the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, 96% of formerly homeless people living in permanent supportive housing

I work for one of the smallest departments at Carey Counseling Center Inc. The housing department consists of a housing director, three independent living case managers, two Project for Aiding in the Transition from Homelessness (PATH) case managers and a peer support specialist. I, Jason Postlethwait, serve as a PATH case manager designed to link the homeless population to mental health and housing services. I serve 4 of CCC’s seven counties and Amanda Nichols, who is the other PATH case manager serves the others. We work in conjunction with our housing director Fran Howe who is in charge of the $400,000 housing grant that pays for those services. The two PATH case managers are funded through a grant from the State of Tennessee and the

The Home base program continues to develop strategies for prevention, to increase shelter service availability, aid clients to reach resources they need, and decrease time families need to stay in shelters and get them into stable homes. The ultimate goal is to completely eliminate homelessness. Prevention centers are readily available in all 5 boroughs throughout New York City. Eligible families who are at risk of becoming homeless, and have not yet enrolled into a shelter initially begin working with a case manager who will help to develop a unique plan accordingly to the family’s current situation to ensure housing stability. These case managers can provide direct referrals to services the families may need as well as offer alternative temporary financial assistance. Many homeless families receive financial assistance from providers such as NYC Human Resource Administration (HRA), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Case management can provide access to these resources as well if they are necessary. Other services provided include preventing eviction, emergency rental assistance, educational and job placement assistance, financial counseling, and help

All of her and her children’s medications are not covered by Medicaid, and there is a thirty-day waiting period for benefits when a recertification is missed. The participant’s grievance with Redevelopment housing are the one to five year waiting list for service. Her utility assistance is not enough for monthly utilities, and the annual inspection of occupied dwelling. With the Virginia department of health, she finds that her WIC (Women, infant, and children) benefits exhaust before month is out, and there are a limited number of car seats available, and limited number of clients seen daily in Virginia department of

Medicaid policy has taken imperative action in acknowledging housing as a health determinant by permitting reimbursement for housing related services. Housing affects all aspects of a person’s development, impacting ability to achieve optimum health status in a myriad of ways.1 Stable housing provides a safe place to recuperate from surgery or illness, a place to properly store medication, and best allows a person to engage in and receive consistent care from a healthcare system that is not structured to deliver care to persons with unstable housing.2, 3 Housing is an important factor in health, with persons of lower socioeconomic status at higher risk of living in unsafe and toxic conditions, or in the case of the very poor, the homeless,

HOME staff has expertise in fair housing law and regulations and understands the difference between affordable housing issues, landlord-tenant problems, and illegal discrimination. Residents who call with complaints know only that they have a housing problem and it is not “fair.” HOME’s experienced staff knows how to listen to the story, ask some questions, and sort out the complaints that need to be handled as potential discrimination and those that need to be referred to other resources.

The primary social problem addressed by the Valor House is veteran homelessness. The Valor House receives funding to operate from the Veterans Administration (VA). As such the Valor House must follow and adhere to the guidelines established under the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009. The HEARTH Act established the final rule on the definition of "chronically homeless" that will be used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, and in the Consolidated Submissions for Community Planning and Development (CPD) Programs. This is of significant importance because the definition of homelessness determines who is eligible to

Making It Possible to End Homelessness (MIPH) is a subgrantee’s of the HPRP program, which was created to help families gain housing stability in Middlesex county. The program was awarded $1.4 billion to service clients threatened with evictions. The program’s intent is to reduce homelessness by keeping families stably housed, connecting with mainstream benefits, and working on a stabilization plan to avoid homelessness in the future. However, the program is under pressure to spend more funding because it's quarterly report indicated that its not servicing enough clients. “As is the case with all direct spending programs, the fundamental issue facing the Congress each year concerning housing programs is how much funding to devote to this

Housing first is a method to end homelessness that focuses on providing people feeling homelessness with housing as fast as possible. Likewise, since the year of 2000, the program Housing First had demonstrated effectiveness for not only the homelessness reduction but also the alleviating of the additional problems that may often plague the individuals that are homeless. Roche (2004), a researcher at the university of Miami, Jackson memorial hospital said that ninety-eight percent remained in the housing after the 12 months. Additionally, he said that recently there were significant increases reported in an access to the physician care utilization that was enhanced by a life quality and the decreased involvement with a justice system that was

The sample and data source for this study used de-identified data from the HMIS database that obtain 37,000 homeless people for the past eleven years. Only the information from the database that received either a rapid housing assistance after the ended of the HPRP act in September of 2012 and those who excited a rapid program before October 2015. There were at total of 133 households that met the criteria for been homeless and received rapid rehousing assistance. A survival analysis was used to found the amount of time to a stable housing placement for the homeless household that engaged in rapid rehousing. The results showed that Veterans were more likely to exit homelessness and into housing than to the nonveterans homeless, homeless family that stayed with a family member or close friends before they entered into rapid rehousing program were about 24% more likely to exit homeless verse the homeless ones who stayed in an emergency shelter or even temporary housing, and that about 77% of the households found more stable

Tertiary prevention provides interventions for case management of chronic illnesses, rehabilitative services, counseling and addictive treatment programs, transitional housing programs for the homeless to successfully get back into the community (Allender et al., 2014). A data-based, peer-reviewed article Effectiveness of case management for homeless persons: A systematic review, revealed which case management models used for homeless persons were more effective. The standard case management (SCM), is a coordinated and integrated service, with the goal to provide ongoing supportive care, improve housing stability, and found to reduce substance use and remove employment barriers for substance users. Assertive community treatment (ACT), is a multidisciplinary team that is accessible 24/7 a week, and found to improve housing

During the course of this semester, I have been interning with the Human Services Center located in New Castle, PA. The Human Services Center (HSC) has a several locations, ranging from administrative offices to group homes. Out of the 21 buildings the HSC owns, I spend a majority of my time in the Housing and Residential Services office. This office is located on a block of old Victorian homes on Grant Street, which were renovated in 2010 into HSC staff offices and group homes. The Human Services Center provides housing for approximately 150 individuals with issues dealing with homelessness or mental health illness. They are able to serve a diverse group of individuals by employing around 200 people with a background