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Are You a Housing First Community? Homes within Reach Conference October 2018

Join us at the Housing First Community Conference to learn about the Housing First approach, its impact on the homeless crisis response system, and how to implement it in your community. This conference brings together service providers, housing developers, shelter providers, and more. Don't miss this opportunity to make a difference in ending homelessness.

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Are You a Housing First Community? Homes within Reach Conference October 2018

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  1. Are You a Housing First Community? Homes within Reach ConferenceOctober 2018 Suzanne Wagner swagner@housinginnovations.us

  2. Agenda • What is a Housing First Community? • USICH Community Assessment • Q&A

  3. Who is here today? • Service Providers • Housing Developers • Housing Managers • Consumers • Shelter Providers • Transitional Housing Providers • PSH Providers • CoC Leads • Advocates • Funders • Consultants • Others?

  4. Housing First and the Homeless Crisis Response System An effective Crisis Response System provides immediate and easy access to safe and decent shelter to anyone that needs it and aims to re-house people as quickly as possible. “Rare, brief and non-recurring” National Alliance to End Homelessness

  5. Housing First (HF) • HF is a paradigm shift from the traditional housing ready approach. It follows a basic philosophy—that everyone is ready for housing, regardless of the complexity or severity of their needs. It is a program model of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) AND a system-wide orientation and response. All programs serving homeless people can implement HF practices.

  6. Crisis Response System Diagram of Coordinated Crisis Response System OUTREACH www.usich.gov

  7. Are You a Housing First Community? • All interventions are housing focused • Focus on permanent housing starts at the front door – shelter, outreach • Reduce length of time people are homeless and increase exits to permanent housing • Rapid re-housing is “rapid” • Interventions are low demand, behaviorally-focused and high expectation • Programs screen in and not out • Teach tenancy skills • Targets services based on need (PSH (permanent supportive housing) is targeted to the most vulnerable populations) National Alliance to End Homelessness

  8. HUD Performance Measures

  9. Features of a Housing FirstCrisis Response System • Homelessness is “rare, brief, and non-recurring”. • All interventions quickly end the episode of homelessness and move people to permanent housing. • Efforts at diversion should be the first intervention and ongoing intervention • Begin conversations about re-housing as soon as a household becomes homeless. • It is easily understood and navigated by persons experiencing homelessness. National Alliance to End Homelessness

  10. Features of a good Crisis Response System - 2 • Use practices informed by data and research • Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs). • Target services effectively to those with highest barriers, use progressive engagement. • Right mix of interventions to match needs – system is “right sized” • Allocate resources to most effective and cost-efficient strategies. • Transform or reallocate programs that are not effective and/or efficient. National Alliance to End Homelessness

  11. USICH Checklist: Assessing Your System for a Housing First Orientation • Housing First should be adopted across your entire system: outreach and emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, transitional and supportive housing. • Checklist assesses extent to which your community has adopted a system-wide Housing First orientation • Your community has a coordinated system that offers a unified, streamlined, and user-friendly communitywide coordinated entry process to quickly assess and match people experiencing homelessness to the most appropriate housing and services, including rapid re-housing, supportive housing, and/or other housing interventions.  • Emergency shelter, street outreach, and other parts of your crisis response system implement and promote low barriers to entry and quickly identify people experiencing homelessness, provide access to safety, make service connections, and partner directly with housing providers to rapidly connect people to permanent housing.  • Source: US Interagency Council on Homelessness. “Housing First Checklist: Assessing Projects and Systems for a Housing First Orientation.” September 2016. https://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/Housing_First_Checklist_FINAL.pdf

  12. Checklist: Assessing Your System for a Housing First Orientation - 2 • Outreach/crisis response teams are coordinated, trained, and engage and quickly connect people experiencing homelessness to the local coordinated entry process in order to apply for and obtain permanent housing.  • Your community has a data-driven approach to prioritizing housing assistance, whether through analysis of the shared assessment and vulnerability indices, system performance measures from the HMIS, data on utilization of crisis services, and/or data from other systems that work with people experiencing homelessness or housing instability, such as hospitals and the criminal justice system. • Housing providers and owners accept referrals directly from the coordinated entry processes and work to house people as quickly as possible, using standardized application and screening processes and removing restrictive criteria as much as possible. 

  13. Checklist: Assessing Your System for a Housing First Orientation - 3 • Policymakers, funders, and providers conduct joint planning to develop and align resources to increase the availability of affordable and supportive housing and to ensure that a range of options and mainstream services are available to maximize housing choice among people experiencing homelessness.  • Mainstream systems, including social, health, and behavioral health services, benefit and entitlement programs, and other essential services have policies in place that do not inhibit implementation of a Housing First approach. For instance, eligibility and screening policies for benefit and entitlement programs or housing do not require treatment completion or sobriety.  • Staffin positions across the entire housing and services system are trained in and actively employ evidence-based practices for client/tenant engagement, such as motivational interviewing, client-centered counseling, critical time interventions, and trauma-informed care.

  14. Discussion • Where is your community strong on Housing First? • Coordinated entry, connection between outreach and homeless system/ housing, low barrier entry requirements, mainstream systems engagement, range of housing options, skilled staff, use of data to prioritize • What areas need strengthening? • What has helped you make changes? • What are the biggest challenges/barriers to being a HF community?

  15. Wrap Up and Final Q&A

  16. Quick Program Screen • Does Your Project Use Housing First Principles? • 1) Are applicants allowed to enter the program without income? • 2) Are applicants allowed to enter the program even if they aren’t “clean and sober” or “treatment compliant”? • 3) Are applicants allowed to enter the program even if they have criminal justice system involvement? • 4) Are service and treatment plans voluntary, such that tenants cannot be evicted for not following through? • US Interagency Council on Homelessness. “Housing First Checklist: Assessing Projects and Systems for a Housing First Orientation.” September 2016.

  17. Housing First Core Practices

  18. Housing First is not “Housing only” OR • “Anything goes”

  19. Teach Obligations of a Lease/Tenancy

  20. Teach Rights of Tenancy • Right to privacy – no entering apartment without permission or emergency • Right to safe and well maintained housing – repairs and safety considerations • Right to due process – no eviction without proper process

  21. Resources for Tenancy Education • https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/rental_assistance/tenantrights

  22. Roles: Landlord/Housing Provider and Support Services

  23. Coordinating Support around Lease Compliance • Landlords/property managers establish tenancy obligations and enforce them. • Set up communication structure and arrange for early warning system – reach out monthly • Focus on eviction prevention and use the structure of the lease to guide your interventions • Negotiate ahead of time • Clear understanding of process • Visit the home often • Probe for any threats to tenancy to prevent eviction

  24. Communication between Case Managers and Landlords/Housing Providers • Clear guidelines about when to talk (monthly call or meeting with landlord/ property manager) • Copying case management staff on notices of violations • Confidential versus public, protected health info • Policies and Procedures for home visits, resolving problems and role, emergencies, on-call

  25. Be Pro-Active when Tenancy Threatened • Continuing education regarding obligations of tenancy • Ensure person is aware of information the landlord needs • Additional person, repairs etc. • Case Manager assists each person in understanding and complying with the lease and related requirements • Landlord is familiar with the role and function • Case Manager models communication with landlord • If a problem occurs everyone is aware of the process

  26. Eviction Prevention

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