To newly elected mayors, governors, state legislators, and members of Congress:
Congratulations on your election and the opportunity to serve your communities.
As you prepare to take office and set priorities for the years ahead, I am writing on behalf of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) to encourage you to consider supportive housing as a key strategy for strengthening communities, improving public outcomes, and making government resources work more effectively.
Today, an estimated 1.25 million Americans could benefit from supportive housing. Across urban, suburban, and rural communities, too many people with significant health, behavioral health, or disability-related needs remain caught in cycles of housing instability, homelessness, institutional care, incarceration, and repeated use of emergency services.
Supportive housing combines affordable housing with services that help people with disabilities, including those with significant health and behavioral health challenges, achieve stability, improve health, and live more independently. It is more than a housing intervention. It is a proven platform for better outcomes across multiple public systems.
Decades of research demonstrate that supportive housing reduces reliance on costly crisis responses while improving housing stability and well-being. Studies have found that supportive housing residents experience a 40 percent reduction in arrests, 30 percent fewer days spent in jail, a 40 percent reduction in emergency department use, and nearly $7,000 in annual public cost offsets per person. Most importantly, supportive housing helps people secure and maintain permanent homes.
Emergency departments, psychiatric hospitals, jails, shelters, and other crisis systems play critical roles, but they cannot substitute for a home. Communities are best served when public systems help people achieve stability before crises occur rather than repeatedly responding after the fact.
This objective should unite us regardless of political affiliation or geography: more people living in stable homes, stronger communities, and public resources invested in solutions that deliver measurable results. Achieving that goal requires coordination across housing, health care, behavioral health, human services, and justice systems.
CSH has partnered with states and communities nationwide to develop supportive housing, strengthen financing strategies, improve quality, and align housing investments with health, behavioral health, and justice initiatives. One lesson stands out consistently: communities are most successful when they align the agencies and resources that already bear the costs of housing instability.
As you shape your agenda for the term ahead, we encourage you to work with fellow public officials and community partners to advance five shared priorities:
- Expand supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness and for individuals with disabilities or significant health and behavioral health needs.
- Connect housing and health care strategies by aligning housing investments with supportive services, removing barriers to Medicaid enrollment and retention, and ensuring the appropriate use of Medicaid and behavioral health resources for services while housing resources support the home itself.
- Create stronger pathways from institutions to housing for individuals leaving hospitals, behavioral health facilities, jails, and prisons, helping ensure transitions lead to stability rather than homelessness.
- Use capital and financing tools strategically to increase the production and preservation of supportive and affordable housing and better align investments across levels of government.
- Establish cross-agency leadership and accountability so housing, health, behavioral health, human services, and corrections systems work toward shared outcomes.
These priorities reflect a practical agenda, not a partisan one. They focus on responsible stewardship of public resources, stronger coordination among systems, and measurable results for communities and taxpayers alike.
Supportive housing should be viewed not simply as another expenditure, but as essential community infrastructure that helps other public systems perform more effectively. By investing in stability, communities can improve outcomes for residents while reducing avoidable pressure on emergency and institutional systems.
CSH welcomes the opportunity to work with you, your teams, and community partners as you turn priorities into action. We bring decades of experience in financing, policy, service design, and implementation, along with lessons learned from states and communities across the country.
Whether you are leading a city, a state, or serving in a state legislature or Congress, your term presents an opportunity to foster collaboration across systems and advance lasting solutions to homelessness. We invite you to consider supportive housing as an essential component of that effort.
Sincerely,
Deb De Santis
President and CEO
Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
