Toolkit for Developing and Operating Supportive Housing

Introduction and Overview

The purpose of this Toolkit is to provide organizations with access to tools, informational materials, and sample documents that can help them address key challenges in the planning, development, and on-going operation of permanent supportive housing projects.  This Toolkit currently contains more than 150 informational pieces, tools, and sample documents.

All of the tools within this Toolkit can be accessed via the

Table of Contents 

Individual sections of the Toolkit can be accessed directly via the following links:

Understanding Permanent Supportive Housing:  

The documents in this section provide an overview of supportive housing, including identifying its defining features and exploring key principles and elements of successful supportive housing projects.

Development and Finance:

The tools in this section are designed to help address critical issues related to developing and financing new supportive housing projects, including assessing organizational capacity, putting together the development team, assembling the necessary financing, identifying an appropriate site for development, and structuring the deal for success.

Housing Operations:

This section provides a variety of tools related to the provision of property management services in supportive housing settings, including the importance of mission-driven property management, tenant screening and selection procedures, lease and lease enforcement issues, reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities, safety and security protocols, and maintenance issues.

Supportive Services:

The documents in this section focus on the provision of effective services in supportive housing, including designing the services plan, effective service delivery and community-building strategies, and preparing for the needs of tenants of supportive housing.

Users of this Toolkit are also encouraged to consult the following resources:

CSH’s Toolkit for Ending-Long Term Homelessness, which highlights the most promising practices for serving people who have been homeless for months and years on end, including profiles of supportive housing programs and projects across the country that are successfully housing people who have been homeless for the long term, interactive photo tours of eight of these projects, and sample documents.

CSH’s Supportive Housing Financing Guide, which provides details on all major federal supportive housing financing sources, with program descriptions and links to the regulations, resources on everything from how to use Medicaid in supportive housing to understanding Low Income Housing Tax Credits, links to current funding opportunities, and details on relevant state programs for California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island
. 

CSH’s Publications webpage, through which CSH makes available reports, studies, and manuals aimed at helping nonprofits and government develop new and better ways to meet the health, housing and employment needs of those at the fringes of society. 

Acknowledgements:

This Toolkit was made possible through the generous support of the MetLife Foundation.

CSH also wishes to acknowledge the important contributions of Maryann Leshin of M. Leshin Consulting, Nina Marinkovich of MAK Design + Build, and Kerry Abbott and Shelagh Little of Abbott Little Consulting, for their work in preparing many of the tools included within this Toolkit. 

CSH also gratefully acknowledges all those who contributed to earlier documents, tools, and publications upon which many of these tools are based.

Finally, CSH wishes to acknowledge the generosity of all those organizations who provided sample documents for use within this Toolkit.

Return to www.csh.org.