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Toolkit for Developing and Operating Supportive Housing
Essential Service Strategies for Supportive Housing Settings
There are several factors that make the provision of services in the context of supportive housing unique. First, the services are provided in, or in connection with, the tenants’ housing, with the primary goal of the services to promote housing stability. Second, because the services are provided in a residential community, the services must also be oriented around creating a sense of community that is welcoming and comfortable for all.
In addition, unlike other settings in which services are compulsory for program participants, services in supportive housing are often voluntary, with an expectation that a tenant cannot be evicted for failure to participate in services if they otherwise honor the terms of their lease. Because services are voluntary, staff must work that much harder to engage residents and provide services and activities that are viewed as helpful and appealing - the trust built between staff and residents must serve as a primary motivation for participation in services leading to success in housing.
This section will take providers through a range of practical issues in the day-to-day work of providing services in supportive housing, including engagement (the start of relationship and trust building between residents and staff), one-on-one case management, and community building.
Tools for Essential Service Strategies for Supportive Housing Settings:
Effective Engagement in Supportive Housing: This document offers general guidance regarding engagement, including effective modes of behavior and communication during engagement, and including special considerations for engagement with persons with mental illnesses and persons with substance use issues.
Effective Communication Techniques: This instructional tool describes how to ask open ended questions and engage in reflective listening while attempting to engage a resident in order to test assumptions, affirm the resident in their feelings and wishes, and have more participatory interactions during engagement.
Case Studies: Finding Common Ground and Engagement Strategies: This tool provides illustrative case studies that demonstrate effective engagement in the context of supportive housing. This document can be used as a tool in interactive, participatory staff training.
Role of the Case Manager: This document provides an overview of the types of functions performed by a case manager working in a supportive housing environment. This list is intended to be inclusive, but not prescriptive, as individual projects will require different functions of their case managers.
The Process of Goal Setting: This checklist provides a framework for one-on-one goal setting conversations between a case manager or other staff person and a supportive housing tenant.
Motivational Interviewing: This tool describes the five general principles of motivational interviewing, a technique that can be used when working in partnership with a resident toward needed changes.
Using Referral Sources: This checklist provides general guidance about working with outside entities to which you may refer residents for services.
Developing an Individual Service Plan: This checklist provides an overview of the process of developing a service plan with the resident, including the importance of it being a resident-driven activity.
Sample Individual Service Plan Form: This blank template is designed to help ensure that the service plan identifies the goals as well as the means to achieve them, and includes specification of the responsible party for each action step as well as discrete timeframes for achievement of each goal and outcomes.
Sample Goal Setting Worksheet: This template (with illustrative sample entry) is intended as a complement to the overall individual service plan. For each goal, action steps and responsibility for action steps are documented.
Guidelines for Case Records: This informational piece discusses why documentation is critical to supportive services delivery and provides sample supportive services (i.e. case management) file contents, including, but not limited to, the above referenced components and samples.
Community Building in Supportive Housing Developments: This informational piece provides guidance for helping tenants to foster productive relationships both within the supportive housing project and the surrounding community. A list of questions is included to help guide the development of a community building plan.
History of Community Building in Supportive Housing: This training tool describes early experiences with community building in supportive housing, and the resulting benefits.
Benefits of Community Building in Supportive Housing: This short informational document describes the many benefits community building may bring to a housing site.
Preparing a Plan for Community Building Efforts: These questions in this document are intended to guide planning, resource allocation, and evaluation during community-building efforts.
Social Norms and Organizing Issues Worksheet: This worksheet can be used to facilitate discussion at meetings with community members or it might initially be used by trainees who can begin putting ideas on paper to be shared with the larger community in the future.
Tenant Participation in Supportive Housing Settings: This informational piece describes strategies to involve tenants in program and policy design at every stage of project development, implementation and operations, including formation of tenant councils.
Involving Tenants in the Decision-Making Process: This document describes the opportunities for tenants to impact their environment through involvement in the day-to-day decisions in supportive housing projects.
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