When the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) felt an overwhelming need to serve people in their community who had become homeless, they decided to do so through a collaborative partnership with local service providers by implementing a new Shelter Plus Care program for 100 homeless households.
The Shelter Plus Care Program is designed to provide permanent housing for homeless individuals and families with disabilities by providing rental subsidies and supportive services. This can also be a good model for PHAS wanting to create supportive housing with Housing Choice Vouchers. To implement the program, SAHA partnered with the Center for Healthcare Service, which provides comprehensive case management and psychiatric services.
Moving To Work (MTW) was not required to implement this program, and no additional funding was required. SAHA offers this advice to other PHAs who might consider pairing housing subsidies with services, “The collaborative partnership with the outside agencies works well due to the on-going open line of communication. Quarterly meetings and collaborative reporting allows us to discuss lessons learned, what works well and where we need to fine tune. Both parties are equally committed to ensure the success of the program. PHAs interested in replicating this type of program must ensure they have sufficient resources and agencies that are willing and committed to the mission and partnership.”
Learn more about SAHA’s program, view documents they used to implement the program, and learn from other PHAs in CSH’s PHA Toolkit.
