Infrastructure Investment: Beyond the Bricks & Mortar

A Blog by Andy McMahon, Senior Vice President, Policy & External Affairs, CSH

The word “infrastructure” normally conjures up thoughts of bricks and mortar. Investments like highways, pipelines, hospitals, schools and affordable housing development. But people, all of us, are infrastructure too. And when we examine the high return on investment (ROI) our nation receives from federal investments in affordable supportive housing --  funding through Housing Choice Vouchers, McKinney-Vento, HOME and Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) -- we cannot overlook benefits that are not measured in numbers of buildings or units, but are instead gauged by human growth and progress.

It is common to convey the impact of bricks and mortar. For example, respected experts tell us that for every 1,000 rental homes financed by the LIHTC: 1,130 jobs are created; $107 million in local wage and business income materializes: and $42 million in tax revenues fill our public coffers. Evidence suggests these economic impacts stay in the communities where LIHTC-supported housing is built, contributing to higher property values in surrounding neighborhoods and quality-of-life bonuses such as reduced crime rates.

In addition to the new and much-needed housing and overwhelming economic boosts fostered by these investments, there are human faces and stories that are just as impressive. Our role as national leaders in supportive housing gives us unique perspective into how federal housing programs change the trajectory of lives.

The creation and expansion of supportive housing (affordable rentals + access to support services) depends greatly on the Housing Choice Vouchers, HOME, LIHTC and other federal investments. In a report released last year, we noted that virtually every housing credit agency in the country fosters some form of supportive housing development through its federal housing credit programs.

In supportive housing, affordable housing is the platform of stability that allows very vulnerable people to focus on the complex challenges that are holding them back. Obstacles such as poverty, undiagnosed or untreated mental illness, chronic medical problems, serious addictions, family instability, limited employment skills or education, are very real barriers. Once people know they can afford housing and make a home for themselves, they do not devote their full energy to basic survival – where to sleep, eat, and bathe. They gain the flexibility and confidence to address long-neglected needs and receive the help that improves their health and well-being.

Although perhaps not as widely known, plenty of experts back these assertions up too.

Housing is now recognized as a social determinant of health, which means a person who is housed is likely to be healthier than one who is not (e.g., homeless, couch surfing, in shelter).

Because of our work in supportive housing, we have seen the stark differences that emerge once very vulnerable individuals are housed, and how treating the whole person significantly improves medical and behavioral health. As authors of some of the earliest papers and reports on this relationship, we used these observations to set the trend to promote stronger partnerships between healthcare and housing providers.

Through our interactions with health systems and clinical centers throughout the nation, we have been able to show how housing linked to healthcare reduces an over-reliance on crisis and emergency room care, thereby lowering costs.

The obvious benefits go way beyond better health and cost outcomes. An individual who has conquered an illness or addiction is more likely to thrive and take advantage of employment training and job opportunities.

One such person is Jeromy, who called a highway underpass home for ten years. He was well known to local hospital staff and emergency responders because Jeromy received crisis and emergency room care 59 times in one year!

One tragic day, intoxicated and high, he wondered from the side of the road into traffic and was hit by an oncoming car. He spent two months recovering in a hospital and two weeks of that extended stay laying in a coma. The costs associated with his healthcare were astronomical.

Fortunately, after leaving the hospital, Jeromy was introduced to supportive housing financed by federal investments and his life changed almost immediately. He went into recovery from his addictions. He found a part-time job and Jeromy’s short visits to clinics now average just 2 – 3 times per year.

There are thousands like Jeromy, "infrastructure investments" with high ROI because federal commitments to affordable supportive housing helped create their new lives. As we point to the units and jobs and revenues generated, let’s not forget the individual success stories behind those numbers and how all of our infrastructure (including people) improves because of them.

You Can Make A Difference Today

For RWJF "Keeping Families Together" BRONX, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Jose Soto, his wife, Evelyn, and their daughter Destiny, 3, spend time together in their apartment and neighborhood in the Bronx, New York May 19, 2010.

It's Giving Tuesday

 

Today nonprofit organizations, local businesses, philanthropists and people like you come together to promote and participate in giving to ensure better, vibrant and stronger communities throughout the country.

We hope you will take a few minutes this morning to support CSH, the national leader in creating access to affordable housing and support services for vulnerable people and families.

CSH is elevating the needs of families like Sonya, Joe and their daughter, Katie, impacted by serious mental health issues, recurring homelessness and repeat involvement with child welfare agencies. To escape their downward spiral of trauma and despair, they needed a safe, stable and affordable home as well as access to mental health and other services. Supportive housing came to their rescue with a nice apartment, and the case management and the recovery programs they need to move forward, together, as a family.

There are thousands of families like Sonya, Joe and Katie who need our help. Your tax-deductible gift can transform their lives from hopelessness to ones where they are housed and healthy.

We thank you for your support and generosity.

 

Click Here to Donate to CSH Now

Oak Foundation Bolsters CSH Reach for Quality

oakIn their pursuit to embrace housing interventions that stress quality, the Oak Foundation has helped sustain several CSH initiatives designed to focus on preventing homelessness by funding proven solutions that improve the economic and social well-being of marginalized youth, adults and families.

Working with CSH, the Oak Foundation has challenged us and other grantees to find ways to help these vulnerable populations while insisting that the supportive housing providers we fund and counsel adhere to the highest standards of quality in the delivery of their programs and services.

A CSH hallmark is our Dimensions of Quality Supportive Housing initiative, which strives to build the capacity of supportive and affordable housing in an environment that encourages, creates and operates high-quality, effective and sustainable housing and services.

Funding from the Oak Foundation helps CSH increase the economic self-sufficiency of those experiencing homelessness and supportive housing residents by:

  • equipping homeless people and those at risk of homelessness with skills to move towards economic stability, enabling them to overcome barriers to employment and encouraging sustained employment;
  • increasing the impact of entitlements and defending them against cuts; and
  • maximizing income through wage growth and enabling people to secure and maintain their entitlements.

To improve the supply of quality, affordable housing, the Oak Foundation partners with us so that CSH can effectively:

  • identify and explore enhancements to systems for developing and financing affordable housing, including supportive housing;
  • increase the social value of existing or planned supportive housing by enhancing its management.
  • advocate for people facing a housing crisis;
  • identify groups at greater risk of homelessness and encouraging early intervention and support; and
  • challenge structures and policies that compromise people's ability to achieve housing stability.

 

Work Well - Strategic Employment Initiative

Since early 2014,  CSH has been working in close collaboration with the San Diego Workforce Partnership and the County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services on the Work Well Initiative.  This five year Mental Health Services Act-funded initiative has the goal of increasing employment for individuals with lived experience of serious mental illness as its core tenet.  Toward that end, the project created the San Diego Behavioral Health Five-Year Strategic Employment Plan.

The plan promotes three key models for increasing employment in San Diego County:

 

As part of our overall strategies, we will continue to provide technical consulting services, conduct trainings, promote employment resource directories and funding announcements, offer employer socials, provide presentations on mental health and stigma and hold annual focus groups, to remain in close contact with the clients who are working to find jobs and the employment specialists and others who are working diligently to assist them.

For more information about the Work Well Initiative, please contact Tom Stubberud at 619-232-3194 ext. 4286.

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Alegre – Orange County’s Newest Supportive Housing Project

Alegre Apartments – Orange County’s newest integrated supportive housing project - will provide 104 apartment homes in the Cyprus Village subdivision in the City of Irvine.  All of the apartments will be affordable to households earning between 30% and 50% of the Orange County Area Median Income.   The developer, AMCAL, is partnering with Lifesteps, Families Forward and the County of Orange to provide complementary social services for children, adults and special needs residents.  Alegre has been designed as a LEED Gold building with the associated cost efficiency, energy savings and sustainability features.  Some of the project amenities include:  elevator access, spacious floorplans, swimming pool with a kid’s water splash feature, barbeque and playground area, computer lab, media room, game room, and a fitness center.  Alegre Poster FINAL (1)

Alegre Apartments also recently won the Kennedy Commission Project of the Year Award for its commitment to quality housing for those in our community with the most need. CSH has been assisting the County of Orange in the development of housing projects serving low and extremely low income tenants who suffer from mental illness and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.   This newest project, Alegre Apartments is currently completing its initial lease up.

Colorado Crosswalk: Services Preventing Homelessness

 

lopez2Jennifer Lopez, Director of Homeless Initiatives for Colorado Governor John W. Hickenlooper, guest blogs in The Pipeline, discussing the State's partnership with CSH and the new Colorado Medicaid Crosswalk.

 

The State of Colorado, under the leadership of Gov. John Hickenlooper, is committed to ensuring that every resident has a place to call home. The high cost and lost potential of every individual and family that experiences homelessness is a daily reminder of the need for bold, coordinated, and sustained action from the State and a broad coalition of community partners.

Supportive Housing (affordable housing combined with access to supportive services) offers a proven, cost-effective, and humane disruption to homelessness and the destructive, costly cycle of prison, emergency shelters, clinics, and hospitals that so often accompanies life on the streets for our most vulnerable.

When an individual is housed, they are more likely to be healthy.  A Denver study found 50% of formerly homeless tenants in supportive housing had improved health status and 43% had improved mental health.

A Chicago study found a 55% survival rate for people living with AIDS in supportive housing compared with a 35% survival rate for a control group as well as a lower viral loads among the housed group.

Colorado has made great strides to secure the needed capital and operating expenses for development, but paying for services in supportive housing remains a major challenge.

Because Colorado expanded Medicaid, homeless single adults in Colorado are now eligible for health coverage through Medicaid. This designation gives healthcare providers the opportunity to connect this highly vulnerable population with life-saving services and care.

In an effort to increase the availability of services to formerly homeless Coloradans and expand access to supportive housing, , the State partnered with CSH to discuss ways to make intense services like substance use treatment and mental health recovery more available and accessible.

CSH worked with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing over a 10-month period to determine the degree to which the State’s current Medicaid plan included housing-related supports.

The newly released Colorado Medicaid Crosswalk provides the State, managed care entities, and service providers with a valuable tool that will help them access additional resources to support  programs that are proven to help those experiencing homelessness attain stability and life-long success.

Colorado’s Medicaid program covers many of the services needed for successful supportive housing programs, this in-depth analysis shows there are opportunities, particularly when caring for individuals living with mental health conditions, for supportive housing providers to secure additional resources and supports from Colorado’s Medicaid program.

The Crosswalk highlights the need for managed care entities, community mental health care providers, and supportive housing providers to work together, in order to fully utilize Medicaid resources to best serve clients living in supportive housing.  

The Crosswalk adds to our arsenal of knowledge as we continue to work with our partners across the state to give more homeless individuals and families the opportunity to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives.

 

Girard Street Senior Apartments

Girard Street Senior Apartments is a new construction project with 25 units – all one-bedrooms and approximately 640 square feet in size – for seniors in the Brookland/Woodridge neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Girard Street will dedicate all 25 to seniors at or below 30% Area Median Income, 10 units of which Dantes will dedicate to supportive housing for seniors who are chronically homeless. Each unit will have a full kitchen and bathroom. The building will also include a secured entry, on-site laundry facility, community room, yoga/exercise room and library/living room. Girard Street Senior Apartments will meet Green Communities criteria. Read our case study for complete project details.

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/

 

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