CSH Initiatives and Products: Keeping Families Together

This document provides a framework for practice in family supportive housing settings. It is intended to be a capacity-building tool for those who are designing or already providing case management services for families living in supportive housing. However, those in the supportive housing field are encouraged to further enhance this tool with their own experiences and practice protocols.

This guide is intended for supportive housing administrators and practitioners who are developing and involved in supportive housing efforts that serve families with children. Families being served by supportive housing efforts face a complex set of challenges including long-term and repeated homelessness, child welfare involvement, mental health issues, domestic violence, and a parental history of trauma. The instability, trauma and complex needs of these families not only impact their housing outcomes, but also their parenting and child development outcomes. Permanent supportive housing for these families provides a platform for adult healing, family strengthening and a healthier life course for the children and youth. To support a family’s ability to use the opportunity that supportive housing provides fully it will be important for supportive housing providers to build an environment that is both developmentally appropriate to the needs of children and responsive to the unique needs and pressures of parents.

This sample tenant manual was developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy in collaboration with the Corporation for Supportive Housing. It is specifically designed as a resource for supportive housing providers working with families, especially those families involved with the child welfare system. The goal was to develop a tenant manual that could be easily adapted for sites that are providing supportive housing for families. While it may be most useful to programs serving families at a single site such as an apartment building or a cluster of apartment units managed by the same housing provider, we encourage providers of scattered site housing to review and adapt with landlords as you find useful.

The financial and technical assistance funding comes from a $2 million grant from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

New York, NY | November 20, 2024 – CSH, a national nonprofit intermediary and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) advancing supportive housing, has awarded a 24-month technical assistance package, including optional $100,000 grants, to housing and social service entities in Alaska, Washington, and Wisconsin. These entities and their partners will use the assistance and grants to co-design housing and service strategies with families and communities. The results will aim to reduce housing instability and child welfare involvement, particularly among American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The awardees are Newcap in Northeast Wisconsin; Child Welfare Academy at the University of Alaska Anchorage; and the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).

The awards are part of a CSH initiative funded by a $2 million grant from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to promote cost-effective approaches to housing stability, reduce family separation, and align housing and services to transform systems. It builds on CSH’s work over the past three years with families, American Indian and Alaska Native child welfare experts, and communities in Minnesota and Washington to advance the Keeping Families Together (KFT) model.

“CSH congratulates these awardees for their commitment to keeping families intact and providing access to affordable housing and services.” said Andrew Johnson, Director of Systems Transformation, Families and Youth at CSH. “We are grateful to Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies for their generous resources that have been crucial to our work in supporting communities and strengthening housing and services systems to assist families better.”

Over the next two years, the awardees will receive CSH’s technical assistance and optional $100,000 grants to collaborate on strategies that reduce housing instability and child welfare involvement. This includes engaging cross-system partners, developing tools to identify family housing needs, and improving child welfare and housing systems.

Drawing from the CSH KFT model and national One Roof coalition, the technical assistance will include identifying and engaging cross-system partners to collaborate as they develop and implement housing and services to support housing stability, preservation, and family reunification. Technical assistance will also help develop tools or screening methods to identify family housing needs and improve child welfare and housing systems to better serve families most impacted by child welfare and housing instability.

The initiative addresses the significant impact of housing instability on families involved in the child welfare system, building on successful efforts in Minnesota and Washington. Existing sites in these states will continue to receive support and opportunities for additional grants and technical assistance.

“We are thrilled to support these outstanding organizations in Alaska, Washington, and Wisconsin through our technical assistance and grant program. Using our KFT model and One Roof coalition, we have learned that solving housing instability and child welfare system involvement that drive high costs requires sectors and systems to co-design solutions directly with the families they serve,” said Deborah De Santis, President and CEO at CSH.

The selected awardees provided statements upon receiving news about technical assistance and optional grant awards.

“This partnership will provide a way to deepen DCYF’s work with the twenty-nine federally recognized Tribes and urban Indian populations, and to engage with young people and families more meaningfully. Working with CSH on broader implementation planning and service delivery as well as focusing on effective outreach to these specific populations will support our mission as DCYF rolls out contracted housing supportive services in counties across the state,” DCYF Housing & Homeless Prevention Administrator Cole Ketcherside said. “We are thrilled to continue working with CSH as we’ve already had success in providing housing support services in several communities currently being served.”

“We know that families below the poverty line are three times more likely to be substantiated for child maltreatment and that economic differences have fueled disproportionate child welfare system involvement among families of color; Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) families are disproportionately more likely to be poor due to longstanding systemic conditions,” said Alicia Laseck, Marketing Consultant with Newcap. “With support from CSH grants, we will create community and systems partnerships and will work together to drive amplified, large scale change for Native American families.”  

“This is a welcome opportunity to support at-risk families and youth by bringing together child welfare and housing systems to co-create solutions with those impacted by these systems. We look forward to leveraging the technical assistance and support to expand the state’s capacity to support families, particularly among Alaska Native youth and families,” said Amanda Metivier, Director of the Child Welfare Academy.

ABOUT ONE ROOF

One Roof is an exciting national initiative to support local communities in developing and advancing practical and policy solutions for children, youth and families caught at the intersection of child welfare involvement and housing instability/homelessness. One Roof drives change by delivering improved and integrated solutions designed to safely preserve and reunify families facing housing instability, trauma, and child welfare involvement. One Roof builds its success on community collaboration, partnerships, and by leveraging common goals between housing and child welfare agencies. With the support of One Roof, hundreds of families have received supportive housing and been more efficiently served by child welfare and community partners. Visit 1RoofFamilies.org.

Media Contact: Jesse Dean, Director, Strategic Communications | [email protected] or 347-931-0132.

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These briefs present information on federal housing voucher programs, such as the Family Unification Program (FUP), that child welfare and housing leaders can use to stabilize families through cross-sector partnerships. These briefs provide strategies for successfully administering FUP vouchers and identifying FUP eligible families. They also dispel common myths around the administration of FUP vouchers, so that these critical housing resources can be leveraged to to help strengthen families and keep children safe. Part 2 focuses on how to work successfully with housing partners to administer FUP vouchers for families .

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To access the Brief on Family Housing Vouchers – Part 1, follow the link below.

These briefs discuss how Family Unification Program (FUP) and Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) federal housing vouchers can support transition, wellbeing, and stability for youth/young adults’ transitions from foster care involvement with the child welfare system. Part 1 provides an overview of FUP and FYI vouchers. Part 2 offers a detailed guide to administering FUP and FYI vouchers for youth and young adults. 

The publications were made possible in collaboration with Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve – and ultimately prevent the need for – foster care.

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To access Part 1, please continue to through the link below.

These briefs present information on federal housing voucher programs, such as the Family Unification Program (FUP), that child welfare and housing leaders can use to stabilize families through cross-sector partnerships. These briefs provide strategies for successfully administering FUP vouchers and identifying FUP eligible families. They also dispel common myths around the administration of FUP vouchers, so that these critical housing resources can be leveraged to to help strengthen families and keep children safe.

The publications were made possible in collaboration with Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve – and ultimately prevent the need for – foster care.

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To access the Brief on Family Housing Vouchers – Part 2, follow the link below.

This brief provides ten steps that child welfare and family support leaders and their communities can take to advance a family eviction prevention plan. This plan aligns with broader shifts in child welfare policy and practice to build community- based preventative supports that strengthen families and keep children safe.

These briefs report on the impact of evictions on families and present information on what child welfare and family support leaders and their communities can do now to prevent evictions for families and the importance of immediate and long-term cross-sector prevention strategies. In addition, the briefs include a list of ten steps to advance a family eviction prevention plan aligned with broader shifts in child welfare policy and practice and efforts to build community-based preventative supports that strengthen families and keep children safe.

The publications were made possible in collaboration with Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve – and ultimately prevent the need for – foster care.

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For additional information, download our brief on 10 things to do to prevent family evictions:

This data brief guides system providers on how to better coordinate data and services for families involved with systems, such as child welfare, homelessness response, behavioral health, education and justice.