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/

 

OSF Grants $150,000 to CSH for FUSE Replication

OSFThe Open Society Foundations (OSF) U.S. Programs initiative supports efforts to advance equality, fairness, and justice with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized communities and the most significant threats to open society in the United States today. OSF works to further a vibrant democratic society in which all people can meaningfully participate in its civic, economic, and political life and to ensure that the core institutions of civil society are effective and accountable to the public.

Areas of particular emphasis in U.S. Programs’ grant-making and other activities include:

  • The advancement of effective and fair criminal justice and drug policies,
  • Support of the rights of racial minorities and other vulnerable groups;
  • Support of institutions and practices that advance a more informed and engaged public and responsive and effective government.

OSF’s recent contribution of $150,000 to CSH to promote a scaled replication and the sustainability of the FUSE (Frequent Users/Utilizers Systems Engagement) model will help ensure that more people leaving our jails and prisons will have a real chance to become a part of the communities in which they live. Because of the generosity of OSF and others, CSH is able to recreate FUSE in more communities across the country.

FUSE is a CSH signature accomplishment that helps communities identify and engage high utilizers of public systems and place them into supportive housing in order to break the cycle of repeated use of costly crisis services, shelters, and the criminal justice system. In the FUSE model, supportive housing serves to smooth the transition from institution to community, promoting a transformation that serves those released from jails and prisons, and the general population, by improving lives and public safety.

The critical support of OSF and our partners will allow CSH to aggressively pursue our vision to create additional policy and resource tools, such as FUSE, that encourage cross-system collaboration and allow innovative responses to complex social problems.

 

$500,000 Loan for Vista de la Puente Supportive Housing

Vista de la Puente

This month, CSH approved a significant acquisition loan to Townspeople to help create supportive housing units within the planned Vista de la Puente development.

Facts about the project:

  • Located in the South Crest neighborhood in the City of San Diego, CA
  • It is expected that the resident population of this development will be chronically homeless, homeless veterans, and other people who are frequent utilizers of the public healthcare system.
  • Vista de la Puente will provide 52 units of newly constructed affordable housing with 38 units set aside for homeless and chronically homeless veterans and veterans with disabilities and 14 units restricted to homeless individuals and families in need of supportive housing.
  • In early June 2015, CSH provided an acquisition loan in the amount of $500,000 to secure the property for the development. Toby Lieberman, Senior Loan Officer in California, underwrote this loan.
  • The Borrower and developer is Townspeople located in San Diego, California.

Townspeople has been providing services to people living with HID/AIDS for 30 years.  They have deep expertise in providing housing information and referral services, emergency rental assistance to prevent homelessness, emergency utility assistance, access, support to access entitlement programs, individual housing plans, residential supportive services, homelessness prevention and repaid re-housing and case management and coordination.

Townspeople developed, owns and operates three supportive housing projects for people living with HIV/AIDS, and was the first in the San Diego area to focus specifically on this population. Their mission is to “consistently provide access for low income people and specifically those living with HIV/AIDS to affordable housing and other services to enable self-sufficiency”.

CMS Issues Bulletin on Using Medicaid for Supportive Services

CMSThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) has released an Informational Bulletin intended to assist states in designing Medicaid benefits, and to clarify the circumstances under which Medicaid reimburses for certain housing-related activities, with the goal of promoting community integration for individuals with disabilities, older adults needing long term services and supports (LTSS), and those experiencing chronic homelessness. Consistent with statute, CMS/CMCS can assist states with coverage of certain housing-related activities and services.

Read the full CMS/CMCS Informational Bulletin here.

For more information on how states are currently using Medicaid in supportive housing, see CSH's four new resources, released earlier this month.

Read our joint statement with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Technical Assistance Collaborative and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

OrgCode, Community Solutions & CSH Launch Next Step Tool for Youth

The Next Step Tool for Homeless Youth

The Next Step Tool for Homeless Youth, or Next Step Tool, integrates the TAY Triage Tool, developed by the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) through research by Eric Rice, PhD, Associate Professor at University of Southern California, with the VI-SPDAT, created by Community Solutions and OrgCode Consulting, Inc.

The TAY Triage Tool predicts which youth are most likely to experience long-term homelessness, essentially on a trajectory to becoming chronically homeless adults. The VI-SPDAT helps understand current vulnerabilities and risks to future housing stability, in order to support youth in ending their homelessness.

The Next Step Tool carefully merges all of these tested ideas together. Through a closed-ended survey where youth provide a yes, no or one-word answer, service providers have a better understanding of the intensity of supports to begin with when supporting the youth.  You can download the Next Step Tool at http://www.orgcode.com/product/vi-spdat/

 

The Youth SPDAT

To complement the launch of the Next Step Tool, OrgCode has also created a modified version of the Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (SPDAT) for use specifically with youth. The Youth SPDAT was developed based on feedback from many communities using the SPDAT who identified the need for a complete assessment tool that emphasized the unique issues faced by homeless youth.

Download the Youth SPDAT.

 

CSH Transition Age Youth (TAY) Triage Tool

The CSH Transition Age Youth (TAY) Triage Tool - A Tool to Identify Homeless Transition Age Youth Most in Need of Supportive Housing - can be accessed directly here.

 

Harvard Releases State of the Nation's Housing 2015

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University has released The State of the Nation's Housing 2015 and this is what it says about our PROGRESS IN REDUCING HOMELESSNESS and the role supportive housing is playing, effectively getting people off our streets and keeping them housed:

"The lack of affordable housing in the United States continues to leave nearly 600,000 people homeless. More than a third are people in families, including 130,000 children under the age of 18. By comparison, chronically homeless individuals (those who have been without a place to live for at least a year or have had repeated episodes of homelessness over the past few years) account for a much smaller share (15 percent) of the homeless population. Recent increases in federal funding have aided progress in reducing both homelessness overall and among the most vulnerable groups. Indeed, the number of beds in permanent supportive housing expanded 60 percent between 2007 and 2014, to over 300,000. Beds for the chronically homeless accounted for just over half of this increase. As a result, total homelessness fell 11 percent in 2007–14, the number of homeless veterans dropped 19 percent, and the number of chronically homeless individuals was down by 30 percent. At the same time, however, the number of homeless people in families declined by only 8 percent.

But the national reduction in homelessness is not apparent in all markets. Rising rents and a dwindling supply of affordable rentals continue to put people at risk, especially in high-cost locations. Indeed, total homelessness jumped by 29 percent in New York and 40 percent in Massachusetts between 2007 and 2014. The increase in the District of Columbia was even larger, at 46 percent. Family homelessness is particularly acute in major cities, which were home to 45 percent of this population in 2014. New York City headed the list with 41,600 homeless people in families, or nearly 20 percent of the national total."

 

HOUSING + HEALTH: STABLE HOMES WITH SERVICES

An article authored by CSH Senior Program Manager Steven Shum appears in Summer 2015 edition of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH) Newsletter.

HOUSING + HEALTH

STABLE HOMES WITH SERVICES: KEY PRESCRIPTION FOR IMPROVED HEALTH

By Steven Shum, CSH

Taking advantage of health reform, Bay Area communities are integrating healthcare efforts with affordable homes to better serve the most vulnerable individuals. The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) organized May’s Brown Bag on Health and Housing – highlighting new opportunities with Medi-Cal funding for supportive housing targeted to chronically homeless individuals and frequent users of crisis services. CSH trumpeted recent developments with California’s plan to implement the Health Homes option under the Affordable Care Act and the State’s submission of its 1115 Medicaid Waiver. These efforts represent key opportunities for local communities to leverage federal funding for supportive housing.

“We have been working diligently for more than 20 years to ensure steady and reliable funding to create and operate high quality supportive housing,” said Steven Shum, CSH’s Senior Program Manager in Northern CA. “And we’re on the cusp of exciting changes in the health and housing sectors.”

Panelist Preston Burnes, Provider Services Specialist with Health Plan of San Mateo, shared an update of their Community Care Settings Pilot – an innovative partnership targeting housing services and case management support to vulnerable seniors and other adults using health plan funding.

Panelist Margot Antonetty, Interim Director of Housing and Urban Health with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, discussed the City’s long-standing supportive housing efforts for homeless individuals, including 2,100 supportive housing units currently in their portfolio. Their evidence shows that supportive housing efforts have resulted in reduced emergency and inpatient medical costs and improved health outcomes and quality of life for tenants.

To participate in upcoming informational sessions on the State’s plan for Health Homes implementation, please contact: steven.shum@csh.org

New Markets Tax Credits Allocated to CSH

CSH Awarded $40 Million New Markets Tax Credits
       

Today, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund announced it has awarded $40 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) to CSH as part of the 2014 round.

“The Department of Treasury has given us the tools to leverage even more resources to spur the creation of supportive housing,” said CSH President and CEO Deborah De Santis. “Not only will we be able to create the dynamic to house vulnerable people facing instability, this award will help us fulfill our goal of bringing healthcare services to hundreds more who need to access it.”

De Santis explained NMTC allocations can be used to develop facilities such as health care centers, which complement the medical and mental health services often made available to residents of supportive housing.

Thus far, CSH has used NMTC investments to leverage and add to other resources, which in turn have created about 200 units of supportive housing across the country, and enabled 15,000 healthcare visits for those facing homelessness and other forms of housing instability. In addition, CSH investments have generated approximately 800 high-quality permanent and construction jobs in communities.


To learn more about our use of NMTC to promote supportive housing, please see profiles of the Bell Building in Detroit, MI and Paseo Verde in Philadelphia, PA.


With the new award, CSH will address a number of supportive housing projects currently in the pipeline for development and estimates adding another 150 - 200 units of affordable housing, including supportive housing, and an additional 100,000 - 125,000 healthcare visits for those facing homelessness and housing instability.

“The investments made possible by today’s awards will have significant impact nationwide," said Annie Donovan, Director of the CDFI Fund.

To learn more about CSH’s New Markets Tax Credit strategy visit our lending page or contact our Community Investment Team.


"CSH gets it when it comes to supportive housing and they are willing to work in partnership with developers to tailor their support and products to get the deal done." Joe Heaphy, NSO (Bell Building) Vice-President of Real Estate Development and Management

Houston Ends Veteran Homelessness

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CSH President & CEO Deb De Santis with Houston Mayor Annise Parker, Houston Coalition for the Homeless President & CEO Marilyn Brown, and officials from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

 

 

 

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Deb De Santis, President & CEO of CSH, speaks last September in Houston, Texas, lauding the community partnership that worked together to build an infrastructure to quickly and effectively address the housing and services needs of veterans experiencing homelessness.

 

 

 

 

“More so than in any community in this country, the people of Houston came together to end veteran homelessness. This milestone reflects the countless hours and hard work of those on the ground – the members of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County and The Way Home Campaign – who broke down barriers, built new relationships, innovated, and are now ensuring a future where no veteran will ever be shut out from housing or services again.” Deb De Santis, CSH President & CEO

 

READ THE FULL PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING THE END OF VETERAN HOMELESSNESS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

 

RFQ Issued Seeking Evaluator for Denver Social Impact Bond

CSH, Enterprise Community Partners, Social Impact Solutions and the City and County of Denver are pleased to issue a Request for Qualifications related to the evaluation of a social impact investment initiative in Denver that will provide supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals who also struggle with mental health and substance use challenges. The initiative will connect up to 300 chronically homeless individuals that are high utilizers of public services with supportive housing and intensive case management. The program aims to address the challenges that vulnerable individuals experience in obtaining and sustaining stable housing, while also reducing Denver’s criminal justice and emergency health systems costs.

This RFQ seeks to solicit information and statements of qualifications from independent evaluation entities interested in and qualified to conduct a robust and rigorous evaluation for this initiative. The selected evaluator(s) will work closely with initiative partners over the next several years to design, structure and implement a comprehensive evaluation that will include an impact evaluation, cost-benefit analysis and implementation/process study. This opportunity presents a unique and exciting opportunity to evaluate a supportive housing initiative within the context of a social impact initiative.

An information session about this RFQ will be held via webinar on November 4th, 2014 from 12:00pm – 1:30pm EST. Instructions on how to RSVP for the webinar are included in the RFQ document. Participation is strongly encouraged but not mandatory.

Important Dates

A Letter of Intent to Apply is due November 5th, 2014 by 5pm Eastern Standard Time to socialimpactbonds@denvergov.org. The Letter of Intent to apply need only state organization name and contact information (name, email, phone).

RFQ issued

October 20, 2014

RFQ Information and Q&A Webinar

November 4, 2014

Letter of Intent to Apply due

November 7,2014

Applications Due

November, 17, 2014

Notification to top candidates and interviews scheduled

November 24, 2014

Phone Interviews conducted with top candidates

December 1 – December 5, 2014

Selection of Evaluator completed

December 10, 2014

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