CT Ends Chronic Homelessness Among Veterans

CT VASenBCSH is present at today's ceremony where Governor Dannel P. Malloy is announcing that the State of Connecticut has been designated by the federal government as being the first state in the nation to have ended chronic homelessness among veterans.

Last year, Governor Malloy announced several initiatives aimed at combatting veteran homelessness with the goal of ending homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015.  The state has since made major investments in housing, including supportive housing, becoming a national leader for its work.

Ending chronic homelessness among veterans is a milestone for Connecticut in its efforts to end homelessness entirely among veterans by the end of the year.  Connecticut is one of just a handful of states designated for, and participating in, the Zero:2016 initiative, which aims to end all chronic homelessness by the end of next year.  Today's announcement means that all known veterans experiencing chronic homelessness are either housed or are on an immediate path to permanent housing, and that the state will be able to rapidly place any veteran who newly experiences chronic homelessness on the path to permanent housing.

Full Press Release Here

Today's announcement was held at Victory Gardens, a CSH funded supportive housing project in Newington, Connecticut.

 

 

USICH Staff Tours San Diego Projects with CSH

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESThis past Wednesday and Thursday, our CSH Team in San Diego CA hosted Beverley Ebersold, Director of National Initiatives, and Amy Sawyer, Regional Coordinator, both from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). They joined CSH Senior Program Manager Rich Penksa and Dr. Piedad Garcia, Assistant Deputy Director, County of San Diego, Department of Mental Health, and others for site tours and meetings in and around America’s Finest City (the nickname for San Diego).

Focusing on supportive housing and the services offered to residents, Ms. Ebersold and Ms. Sawyer were able to see first-hand how CSH and our partners are working in San Diego to help vulnerable people find stable homes and better lives.

CSH is proud to count USICH as one of our most valued federal partners. We always welcome the opportunity to share information and learn from their knowledgeable staff.

Below is the itinerary and links to the sites and organizations our colleagues from USICH visited while in San Diego.

August 5

Site Visit - The Mason- with Dr. Piedad Garcia, Assistant Deputy Director, County of San Diego, Department of Mental Health. http://housingmatterssd.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SDMH-FactSheet-Mason-1.pdf

Site Visit - Cedar Gateway- with Dr. Piedad Garcia, Assistant Deputy Director, County of San Diego, Department of Mental Health. http://housingmatterssd.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SDMH-FactSheet-CedarGateway.pdf

Meeting - San Diego Housing Commission - with Melissa Peterman, Director Homeless Housing Innovation Department, and Suket Dayal, Director of Strategy for the SDHC. http://www.sdhc.org/Special-Housing-Programs.aspx?id=7616

Meeting -25 Cities San Diego – with representatives Tom Theisan and Jessielee Cooley. http://endingsdhomelessness.org/2014/04/22/the-25-cities-initiative-is-launching-in-san-diego/

August 6

Meeting – San Diego City Administration Building - with Jessica Lawrence, staff to Councilmember Todd Gloria, Chair of Regional Continuum of Care Council. http://www.sandiegococ.org/

Meeting - Behavioral Health Services Housing Council. http://sandiego.camhsa.org/planning.aspx

Meeting - Community Research Foundation- with ACT Team Clinical Director Troy Boyle. http://www.comresearch.org/

 

Voices from PFS Pioneers: Housing to Health Initiative (Nonprofit Finance Fund Blog)

The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) posted this blog today at their Pay for Success Learning Hub. Click Housing to Health to advance directly to the page or read the full blog post reprinted below.

 

Voices from PFS Pioneers: Housing to Health Initiative

by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) (08/05/2015)

 

NFF spoke with Victoria Shire, Vice President at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. about the Housing to Health initiative in Denver, Colorado. You can read more about the project here. This is the first blog in an interview series with selected project partners from our Social Innovation Fund transaction structuring competition

NFF: Tell us about the genesis of the Housing to Health project in Denver. What was the original impetus for this project? How were the project stakeholders brought together?

Enterprise: As a part of their ongoing efforts to find innovative ways to support the work of nonprofits in Denver, the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships (DOSP) applied for technical assistance for Pay for Success (PFS) work on behalf of the City and County of Denver. In January 2013, DOSP received a grant from Harvard Kennedy School SIB Lab for placement of a Government Innovation Fellow, who has since been vested responsibility to coordinate Denver’s PFS activity. In 2013, the City conducted public outreach and a Request for Information (RFI) process to gather ideas from city agencies, local providers, and national organizations. As a part of that process, the City created workshops and committees to explain PFS and generate feedback from nonprofits, local investors, and government officials.

At the conclusion of the RFI process, the City identified a proposal submitted by the Denver Crime Prevention and Control Commission to address homeless individuals who frequently interacted with multiple services, including the criminal justice system, detox, and emergency rooms. This selection was informed by early work of a Recovery Court pilot, which showed early success in reducing jail bed days using a housing and intensive case management intervention. Further needs analysis showed that the proportion of chronically homeless individuals experiencing behavioral health issues in Denver was increasing rapidly, while the resources to serve such individuals were declining.

In more practical terms, the City found that if the demand on jail bed days continued to climb, there would be a need for a new facility. This was the right moment to investigate better preventative solutions. Supportive housing was a natural fit because of decades of evidence that demonstrated its effectiveness in achieving housing stability while reducing usage of emergency health and criminal justice systems.

Enterprise was selected by the City in early 2014 to serve as one of three organizations filling the role of transaction coordinator for this project.  Our other two partners are Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), and Social Impact Solutions (SIS). This partnership of three organizations was assembled by the City for our combination of national and local knowledge, experience with the issue areas, and familiarity with PFS contracting and financing.

In keeping with our mission to end housing insecurity, Enterprise is leveraging its Denver-based staff and knowledge of the local housing market with the PFS expertise of national staff. Enterprise has engaged on four PFS projects in varying stages of development from feasibility to execution, including the Cuyahoga County Partnering for Family Success program.

CSH is the nation’s leading expert in supportive housing and the frequent user model, and is involved in PFS in multiple ways, including as one of eight Social Innovation Fund PFS grantees, as partner and advisor to states exploring PFS, and an investor in Massachusetts Chronic Homelessness Pay for Success Project launched in late 2015.

The transaction team is completed with Social Impact Solutions, a local consulting team that leads the team’s efforts to secure transaction financing. SIS staff has a combined several decades of high-level policy development, financing and implementation experience, and are leading PFS efforts throughout Colorado. They support clients in positioning successful programs for innovative financing mechanism through feasibility studies, financial modeling, identification of funders, and deal structuring.

NFF: One of the things that struck us as innovative about this project was that it is part of a larger initiative that aims to increase the supply of permanent supportive housing in Colorado and capitalize on the connections between housing and improved health and criminal justice outcomes. Can you describe the broader goals for this work and describe how PFS fits in? And how does the project team you’ve assembled reflect the broader scope of work?

Enterprise: The Housing to Health effort will inform and be informed by a number of related efforts at the city and state levels, all of which aim to increase the supply of, or improve the delivery of, supportive housing in Colorado. At the state level, Enterprise is implementing our Supportive Housing Toolkit, a partnership model that provides technical assistance to nonprofit, community-based organizations to develop supportive housing projects. Two cohorts have completed the curriculum and another cohort is scheduled.

Also at the state level, our partner CSH is leading the Medicaid Crosswalk, a project to determine how best to utilize Medicaid resources through existing and future state Medicaid waivers. The State Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has been working with the project to identify how the expansion of eligibility under the Affordable Care Act will be able to fund supportive services connected to the project’s housing.

At the city level, the new Division of Behavioral Health Strategies, which includes the Denver Crime Prevention and Control Commission, has been established in the Department of Human Services. With Denver’s Road Home and the regional Continuum of Care, along with city and state housing agencies, there is a renewed focus on utilizing evidence-based practices to address and end homelessness.

NFF: As you know, the road to launching a PFS project is a long one! Can you share with us what the biggest challenge to date has been? How have you and your partners overcome this challenge?

Enterprise: As with any PFS project, it’s been key to finely define the eligibility criteria and intake process for the PFS-funded intervention. At the same time, there are broader systems in flux, including the introduction of coordinated assessment and placement in the homelessness system and changes in Medicaid rules, which we have to remain cognizant of in our program design.

On top of this, the Denver housing market and affordable housing resources are incredibly tight. This presents challenges to securing the units and subsidy needed to provide housing which are critical to our program’s success, although the financing for new units is not part of the PFS transaction.  One way we mitigated risk was in our service provider selection process: the pipeline of units in development and the experience of providers in developing supportive housing were key considerations. Additionally, both CSH and Enterprise are experienced financial intermediaries in the affordable and supportive housing development fields, so we are well equipped to monitor this aspect of the project and institute course corrections as necessary.

Working With Aging Tenants In Supportive Housing: Connecticut Providers

It’s a fact none of us can escape and we’re told we should embrace: we all grow older. But when you’re facing homelessness, aging becomes a much harder reality and often adds significantly to the challenges of surviving on the streets every day.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless (2009): “Definitions of aged status in the homeless vary from study to study. However, there is a growing consensus that persons aged 50 and over should be included in the 'older homeless' category. Homeless persons aged 50-65 frequently fall between the cracks of governmental safety nets: while not technically old enough to qualify for Medicare, their physical health, assaulted by poor nutrition and severe living conditions, may resemble that of a 70-year-old.”

Compared to the general population, residents in supportive housing who are aging in place also have issues we must consider such as facility accommodations and changing service needs.

As a result of the extensive work of the Connecticut Supportive Housing Quality Initiative Supervisors’ Learning Collaborative – and with the support of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Housing Innovations and CSH – a comprehensive guidance document has been developed to assist providers: Working With Aging Tenants In Supportive Housing: Connecticut Providers.

While this document was developed specifically for and by supportive housing providers in Connecticut, it can be adapted for other states or communities. This guidance document provides the following resources developed to assist supportive housing providers deliver optimal services to aging supportive housing tenants and older persons entering supportive housing in Connecticut:

  • Checklist: Agency Competencies for Working With Aging Tenants in Supportive Housing
  • Resource Guide for Agencies Working With Aging Tenants in Supportive Housing
  • Resource Template for Agencies Working With Aging Tenants in Supportive Housing
  • Training Framework for Direct Care Staff Working With Aging Tenants in Supportive Housing 
  • Checklist: When Someone Dies in DMHAS-funded Supportive Housing in Connecticut 
  • Job description for Direct Care Staff Working With Aging Tenants in Supportive Housing

CSH is available to help you with your questions and training needs related to this document and tenants aging in supportive housing. Please contact us at info@csh.org 

Access the full guidance document here.

Opening New Doors Institute in Ohio

Ohio trainCSH is pleased to offer its Ohio Opening New Doors Institute, a training and technical assistance workshop that will take place from late September 2015 through January 2016. The Institute is designed to assist new or experienced development teams with building winning project proposals that expand capacity for supportive housing in Ohio. This year’s Institute features a combination of in-person and self-paced E-learning modules designed to maximize time and promote experiential learning.

CSH will select 8-10 teams to participate in this training series focused on developing housing to:

  • end homelessness for persons experiencing chronic homelessness
  • assist persons who are prioritized for supportive housing by local Continua of Care and Mental Health and Addiction Services Boards
  • house individuals with developmental disabilities who are transitioning into the community from institutional settings

This series will help teams learn how to navigate the complex process of developing housing with support services and is expected to reduce the time it takes to obtain funding for supportive housing by improving the planning and development process. 

The Institute is made possible by the support received from the Ohio Housing Finance agency, Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing.

US Senator Grassley Sees PUSH-CR in Action

US Senator Chuck Grassley visits Four Oaks and hears about one of our ACYF demonstration sites (PUSH-CR) and the keeping families together supportive housing model in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. grassley

Four Oaks, along with its affiliates Jane Boyd Community House and the Affordable Housing Network, Inc., welcomed U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley to Cedar Rapids on Saturday, July 11.

During the visit, Senator Grassley learned about TotalChild, Four Oaks’ comprehensive and long-term approach for helping at-risk children and their families to achieve and maintain stability. The Senator also heard about Partners United for Supportive Housing in Cedar Rapids (PUSH-CR), the Iowa site which is part of our five-year federal demonstration grant that utilizes community collaboration to assist families experiencing homelessness or housing crisis in combination with other risk factors. He heard directly from a PUSH-CR participant about how the program helped put her on a path to success.

Senator Grassley has helped to shape federal legislation for generations of vulnerable children and families, and is interested in witnessing progress and results with Iowa children. His visit included discussions with community leaders on what additional supports and reforms are needed to sustain these efforts, and encourage better methods to improve neighborhoods and the lives of children and families.

The Senator’s visit began at the Jane Boyd Harambee House, a community hub designed to support children, families and schools in the neighborhood. Grassley also toured one of the homes recently renovated by the Affordable Housing Network, Inc. as part of the TotalChild Wellington Heights Initiative to assure safe and stable housing.

$500,000 Loan for Vista de la Puente Supportive Housing

Vista de la Puente

This month, CSH approved a significant acquisition loan to Townspeople to help create supportive housing units within the planned Vista de la Puente development.

Facts about the project:

  • Located in the South Crest neighborhood in the City of San Diego, CA
  • It is expected that the resident population of this development will be chronically homeless, homeless veterans, and other people who are frequent utilizers of the public healthcare system.
  • Vista de la Puente will provide 52 units of newly constructed affordable housing with 38 units set aside for homeless and chronically homeless veterans and veterans with disabilities and 14 units restricted to homeless individuals and families in need of supportive housing.
  • In early June 2015, CSH provided an acquisition loan in the amount of $500,000 to secure the property for the development. Toby Lieberman, Senior Loan Officer in California, underwrote this loan.
  • The Borrower and developer is Townspeople located in San Diego, California.

Townspeople has been providing services to people living with HID/AIDS for 30 years.  They have deep expertise in providing housing information and referral services, emergency rental assistance to prevent homelessness, emergency utility assistance, access, support to access entitlement programs, individual housing plans, residential supportive services, homelessness prevention and repaid re-housing and case management and coordination.

Townspeople developed, owns and operates three supportive housing projects for people living with HIV/AIDS, and was the first in the San Diego area to focus specifically on this population. Their mission is to “consistently provide access for low income people and specifically those living with HIV/AIDS to affordable housing and other services to enable self-sufficiency”.

CSH Helps Cambridge MA Address Homelessness

“We’re working to develop a set of recommendations on what we can actually do about homelessness,” Ellen Semonoff told a gathering of about 20 people at the Cambridge Community Center Thursday evening, June 25. Ms. Semonoff is Assistant City Manager for the City of Cambridge's Department of Human Service Programs.

The meeting was the second of two held last week that are part of a CSH process called a charrette, a multi-stage community effort to gather opinions and recommendations about a single issue from people who have a stake in the outcome. In this case the stakeholders include residents, consultants, City officials and staff as well as people experiencing homelessness and those who work with them.

The earlier of the two meetings was at noon on Wednesday, June 24. The organizer for both events was Shelly Chevalier, Planning and Development Manager for the Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs. The charrette process is part of a collaborative effort launched by the City to create a plan for addressing homelessness, she said; participants include multiple local government departments, nonprofit partners, and the Cambridge Homeless Continuum of Care.


"We get it," Ms. Chevalier noted at Thursday’s meeting. "We have to try and do things differently, and it requires pushing beyond what we know."


Leadership for the project is organized through a 15-member Charrette Steering Committee composed of representatives from a cross-section of community organizations.

Acting as moderator Thursday evening was Larry Oaks, CSH director in New England. CSH promotes supportive housing as a way of addressing chronic societal problems and is the facilitator for the City’s planning process, according to Ms. Chevalier.

Mr. Oaks introduced two participants in the evening’s discussions, both of them members of the Charrette Steering Committee:
--Sean Terry of the New England Center for Veterans described the organization’s housing services and its work with homeless veterans.
--Liz Mengers of the Cambridge Department of Human Services noted that this is the second month of the “brainstorming” process and said that further discussions during the summer will be followed by another round of meetings in September.

“This meeting is part of a larger city planning process,” Oaks said. “Our mission is to make sure that issues relating to housing and homelessness remain front and center in that process.”

 

CSH Facilitates Implementation Meeting for Boston Mayor’s Action Plan

CSH facilitated an intensive Implementation Planning Meeting in Boston, MA to effect the innovative solutions presented by Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s Task Force on Individual Homelessness. Two members of the Mayor's Task Force are well-respected experts from CSH.

For the planning meeting, staff from CSH's New England and Texas field offices worked with over two dozen dedicated local housing and service providers and City representatives to translate strategies and recommendations of the Task Force into a comprehensive structure to get the work done, and place homeless individuals on a path to permanent housing.

Heather Muller, CSH Program Manager in Houston TX; Larry Oaks, CSH Director in New England; and Chelsea Ross, CSH Program Manager in New England, facilitated the implementation event in Boston.

Hosted by the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, the day focused on restructuring the Homeless Response System. Building on existing strengths and the great strides the City has already made in reducing homelessness, CSH supported the implementation team leaders in designing a plan tailored to the unique needs of Boston proper.

After an address by Boston Chief of Health & Human Services, Felix Arroyo, the team worked in-depth on building the framework for a Front Door Triage System and the implementation of Coordinated Access. The group explored steps necessary to expand and better coordinate existing programs, and fill the gaps in Supportive Housing identified by the Task Force with technical assistance from CSH.

Earlier in the year, Boston welcomed several CSH staff from Texas to share knowledge gained from Houston’s successful change of their Homeless Response System to better address the needs of vulnerable populations. Following their system redesign, supported and staffed in part by CSH, Houston has seen a dramatic reduction in chronic homelessness, and became one of the first large cities in the country to announce they have ended veteran homelessness.

Keep up on CSH work in Texas and Massachusetts to tackle homelessness here and here.

Interested in how CSH can help your community prevent and end homelessness through effective coordinated access and systems change? Contact us at consulting@csh.org.

CMS Issues Bulletin on Using Medicaid for Supportive Services

CMSThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) has released an Informational Bulletin intended to assist states in designing Medicaid benefits, and to clarify the circumstances under which Medicaid reimburses for certain housing-related activities, with the goal of promoting community integration for individuals with disabilities, older adults needing long term services and supports (LTSS), and those experiencing chronic homelessness. Consistent with statute, CMS/CMCS can assist states with coverage of certain housing-related activities and services.

Read the full CMS/CMCS Informational Bulletin here.

For more information on how states are currently using Medicaid in supportive housing, see CSH's four new resources, released earlier this month.

Read our joint statement with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Technical Assistance Collaborative and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

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