Geography: National

This brief titled Supportive Housing and Olmstead: State of the Conversation, February 2024, delves into critical considerations for policymakers and advocates amidst implementing state HCBS settings rule transition plans and endeavors to ensure compliance with the landmark Olmstead v. L.C. decision. The essence of Olmstead lies in its vision to empower individuals with disabilities by fostering their seamless integration into communities and affording them the autonomy to choose supportive housing as a pathway to realizing this vision. This document recognizes the pivotal role of quality supportive housing in advancing these objectives and bolstering Money Follows the Person (MFP) initiatives across states.

This template is a resource for housing providers and property managers to use as they implement a background screening process that improves fairness and lowers barriers for people who have historically been excluded from housing opportunities.

The template can be used as is or adjusted to suit the needs of the community.

While the most fair and efficient process for filling housing units would be to eliminate background checks entirely, or use a policy that is the least restrictive possible, this template can help housing providers create a process that aims to improve fairness if they do opt to utilize a background screening.

This resource outlines best practices for housing providers who want to promote more fairness and reduce applicant denials based on conviction history. These best practices are intended to help housing providers screen more applicants in, rather than screen them out.

These best practices are non-exhaustive and are based on emerging practices informed by research and expertise from the housing field. Today, the housing field is continuing to evolve. Research is growing to support more fair screening practices and policies related to tenants with conviction or arrest histories.

This guide can be used as a starting point as providers begin developing tenant selection policies. The adoption of this guidance is encouraged but strictly voluntary, and does not carry with it any statutory conditions or requirements.

This resource presents frequently asked questions and answers regarding background screening processes. This FAQ resource addresses the most common concerns when building fair tenant screening policies for supportive housing.

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.

Meaningful changes to decrease the impact of the child welfare system on families must be led by the people most impacted by these systems. CSH hired a part-time Keeping Families Together (KFT) Fellow to work with CSH staff in a one-year project to co-design CSH strategy and approach to engaging parents highly impacted by child welfare and housing instability. The KFT co-design team approached their work in a relational way, co-creating every aspect of the work: from team meeting structure to determining final deliverables.

Below is a summary of major themes and recommendations from interviews and other experiments implemented by the KFT co-design team.

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.

In the summer and fall of 2022, CSH and Casey Family Programs hosted a virtual talking circle and a series of subsequent conversations with Native American leaders, service providers and families from across the United States that work in the fields of child welfare, Indian Child Welfare Act and supportive housing. These conversations were led by Patty Beech Consulting, and focused on how to better connect quality, affordable housing and supportive services to Native American families who are at-risk of being separated or who have child welfare system involvement and are facing homelessness or housing instability.

How to Assess the Landscape of Background Screening in your Community

Criminal background screenings are a significant barrier to accessing housing for people involved in the justice system. It is crucial to understand how these screening procedures operate in each community to address the unfair impact of criminal background screenings in housing applications.

A “Landscape Assessment” can help identify trends in screening procedures and areas for reducing barriers. CSH designed this Landscape Assessment tool to help you conduct a comprehensive analysis of criminal background screening procedures in your community that can reduce barriers to housing and lead to recovery and stability for people involved in the justice system.

This toolkit uplifts the 2021 New Jersey Fair Chance in Housing legislation to provide insight to advocates in other jurisdictions working to expand access to housing for people with prior justice system involvement.

New Jersey was the first state to pass statewide Fair Chance in Housing legislation, also known as “ban the box” in housing, that limits the ability of landlords to consider criminal legal background checks at the beginning of the rental application process. This campaign passed with bipartisan support during the summer of 2021. This toolkit includes the following insights from New Jersey leaders of the Fair Chance in Housing campaign:

• Establishing the Campaign
• Building the Coalition
• Navigating Challenges
• Examples Other Jurisdictions Can Reference
• Understanding What’s in the Bill
• Key Lessons Learned