Welcome to the PHA Toolkit

If you work for a PHA or an organization that partners with PHAs, you not only work on behalf of people in need, you navigate and implement extremely detailed, thorough regulations that require a tremendous amount of operational precision to maintain the public’s trust. We’ve built this toolkit to give you the how-to information, templates and examples you’ll need to create supportive housing, a proven solution to homelessness. In this toolkit, you’ll learn how to use PHA resources to create supportive housing regardless of how big your PHA is, whether or not you have Moving to Work status, and whether you’re just getting started or taking your efforts to scale. In this toolkit, we will show you how to form solid local partnerships, and we will roll up our sleeves and work side-by-side with you along the way.
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05. Primer on Homelessness & Supportive Housing

Additional Information and Technical Assistance CSH supports PHAs and their partners in creating supportive housing to end homelessness in a number of ways. At the national policy level, we advocate for the development and sustainability of PHA programs and funding. Locally, we work with PHAs and their partners to implement the initiatives described in this toolkit. If your PHA is interested in taking the next step in ending homelessness and creating supportive housing, please let us know about your efforts and how we might support you! For technical assistance please contact our national Consulting team at consulting@csh.org. For information on national policy efforts related to public housing authorities, please email us at info@csh.org. CSH thanks the many people in Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) around the country who have graciously shared examples of their work and offered to provide additional information to users of the toolkit. CSH is grateful for the assistance we received in creating this toolkit from our federal partners: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the contributions made by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA). We also appreciete the efforts of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for its work to assist PHAs in addressing homelessness. Note: This toolkit represents CSH’s best interpretation of the policies and regulations described. It is intended to be used hand-in-hand with HUD regulations and input from HUD field offices. This toolkit does not represent direct guidance from HUD. The PHA profiles and templates in the toolkit have not been reviewed or approved by HUD.