|
Toolkit for Developing and Operating Supportive Housing
Housing Operations:
Introduction to Property Management in Supportive Housing
Overview of Issues Skip Down to Tools
Many organizations that develop a new supportive housing project are inexperienced in the performance of property management responsibilities. Social services agencies often make the decision to develop supportive housing based upon their thorough understanding of the needs of their target populations. While such agencies will bring strengths to their provision of supportive services to their residents, assuming responsibility for property management often represents a very difficult cultural shift. Property management in a supportive housing setting can present new challenges even for experienced housing development organizations.
Property management in for-profit housing is a “bottom-line” proposition - management provides basic services to tenants as specified in the lease while keeping expenses contained so that the property still generates a profit for the owner. Property management within the context of supportive housing is more complex and can be thought of as being responsible for a “double bottom-line” - maintaining safe, clean, cost-effective properties while also partnering with supportive services staff to help ensure that at-risk and formerly homeless tenants are able to remain living in the housing successfully.
The procedures in this section reflect best practices developed by supportive housing owners, so that supportive housing property management staff can provide high quality, consistent and respectful management services. These practices also help staff protect the safety of tenants and staff, and monitor compliance with the leasing agreement and house rules. The following tools provide a basic grounding in what it means to provide property management services in supportive housing projects and offer guidance on formulating a property management plan.
Tools for Introduction to Property Management in Supportive Housing:
Roles of the Property Manager and Asset Manager: This informational piece will help providers understand the unique role of property management and also what is meant by asset management.
Key Principles for Coordinating Property Management and Supportive Services in Supportive Housing: This informational piece describes the different ways providers can address the property management role (such as through partnerships), and stresses the importance of formalizing roles and responsibilities. It introduces the concept of “mission-driven property management,” underscoring how property management in supportive housing can support residents’ success.
Property Management and Supportive Services: Roles and Responsibilities and Areas of Overlap: This table identified areas of responsibilities of supportive services and property management staff that overlap and how they can be coordinated. This tool can serve to structure conversations among staff regarding how these responsibilities will be delineated within their project.
Forms of Property Management in Supportive Housing: This informational piece provides further detail regarding the various ways a project can provide property management (in house models versus partnerships), identifying advantages and disadvantages of each approach
Supportive Housing Policy and Procedures Manuals: This document describes the importance of maintain a policies and procedures manual for supportive housing operations, and identifies the issues to cover within the manual to provide guidance to staff.
Management Plan Outline: This outline, prepared by the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, provides an example of the standard contents of a Management Plan, frequently required in tax credit projects and projects receiving government funding in order to demonstrate to investors, lenders, and grantors that the responsible entity has planned for the effective management of the project.
Return to Housing Operations Page
Go to Table of Contents
|
