Population: Justice-Involved

The First Statewide Supportive Housing Forum of Its Kind in Maryland

More than a conference, the first-of-kind 2026 Maryland Supportive Housing Forum hosted by CSH served as a space for connection, problem-solving, and shared commitment to ensuring vulnerable Marylanders have access to stable housing and supportive services. The Forum comes at a critical time, with more than 17,000 people in Maryland in need of stable housing while federal cuts to affordable housing and Medicaid threaten the resources that help people secure and maintain housing.  

Over two days, leaders representing supportive housing developers, service providers, healthcare partners, government agencies, advocates, philanthropic organizations, and community-based organizations came together to explore the policies, partnerships, and investments needed to strengthen supportive housing across Maryland. By bringing decision-makers together with practitioners and people with lived expertise, the Forum created opportunities for conversations that do not often happen across systems. Throughout the event, speakers reinforced a shared message: supportive housing is most effective when housing, healthcare, behavioral health, justice, and community partners work toward common goals. 

A recurring theme throughout the Forum was partnership. When attendees were asked what ideas from the event were still resonating with them, responses repeatedly highlighted system alignment, cross-department collaboration, data sharing, healthcare and housing partnerships, coordinated funding strategies, and stronger connections among providers, developers, and government agencies. 

Attendees responded enthusiastically to the Forum experience. One participant described the event as an “absolutely incredible convening,” while another noted it was “great to see so many leaders speaking at the forum.” Others highlighted the relevance of the content and the value of bringing together stakeholders from different sectors to learn from one another and identify new opportunities for collaboration. 

The Forum concluded with a discussion about the future of the Maryland Alliance for Supportive Housing (MASH), a growing coalition CSH is leading that is focused on strengthening supportive housing throughout the state. During an interactive session, attendees identified building partnerships as the alliance’s highest priority, followed by coordinating advocacy efforts and sharing knowledge across sectors. Participants ranked connecting people and organizations as the most important first step for MASH’s work and reported a strong readiness to contribute to ongoing coalition-building efforts.  

Participants also shared concrete actions they plan to take following the Forum, including strengthening local partnerships, engaging with state policy efforts, participating in MASH, advancing housing and healthcare collaborations, and bringing new stakeholders into supportive housing conversations. Across responses, a clear message emerged: people are ready to move from conversation to action.  

As attendees looked ahead to the future of supportive housing in Maryland, Councilwoman Odette Ramos offered a reminder of what is ultimately at stake: 

“If we can’t, as a society, provide the care and support to our veterans and those who need it most, we shouldn’t be here.” 

Thank You to Our Partners and Sponsors 

The Maryland Supportive Housing Forum would not have been possible without the support of our partners and sponsors. We extend our sincere gratitude to The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development for their generous support and partnership in helping bring this first-of-its-kind statewide convening to life. 

We also thank our sponsors for their commitment to advancing supportive housing across Maryland: Foliot Furniture, Southway Builders, Inc., Enterprise Community Partners, The Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, Homes for America, LifeStyles, Inc., Jaydot, Blue Beacon Advisors, Amanda J. Harris Consulting, and Episcopal Housing Corporation. Their support and partnership helped create meaningful opportunities for learning, connection, and collaboration among leaders from across the state. 

As Maryland continues to expand and strengthen supportive housing opportunities, the relationships built and ideas generated during this year’s Forum provide a strong foundation for future collaboration. We are grateful to every speaker, sponsor, planning committee member, and attendee who contributed their time, expertise, and commitment to creating a Maryland where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Photography Credit: Rodney Brown 

On June 19^th, just days before the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C., the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo advancing an interpretation of the Olmstead decision that breaks from decades of established precedent. The memo questions whether the Olmstead decision requires states to serve people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. As the DOJ acknowledged, the new interpretation is out of step with how federal courts have understood Olmstead since 1999.

CSH is deeply concerned about this departure. Defending and advancing Olmstead is central to our work. The core principle— that people with disabilities should be able to live, work, and thrive in the community of their choice — is the foundation of supportive housing. At its heart, Olmstead recognized that no one should be cut off from their families, friends, and people they love simply to receive the care they need.

Olmstead has shaped how states support people with disabilities for nearly three decades. Courts across the country have consistently affirmed its core principle: that unnecessary isolation is a form of discrimination. That principle has guided state investment and practice. It has moved systems toward community-based housing and services that help people achieve stability, health, and independence. 

This does not mean that treatment and housing are at odds. Some people, at some point in their lives, need intensive clinical care, including time-limited stays in hospitals or residential settings. A strong system includes that full continuum, but those settings work best as a bridge to stable community living, not a substitute for it. The choice is not between treatment and housing. Both are essential, and neither works in isolation.  

The harder truth is that legal standards are only part of what stands between a person and a life of their choosing in the community. America faces a severe shortage of affordable housing and wide gaps in access to care. Efforts to expand access to evidence-based treatment supports, particularly community-based models, would be more effective than focusing on compelling services that simply are not available. These realities do more than any legal interpretation to determine whether someone with any disability including serious mental illness stays housed or falls into homelessness. Without a stable home, too many people either languish in institutional care or leave institutional care only to cycle back through emergency rooms, shelters, and jails.

Our FUSE work had demonstrated for more than two decades that when communities prioritize intensive services with housing, even people with the most complex needs find stability and recovery while communities enjoy reduced homelessness and costs associated with institutionalization.

North Carolina shows what is possible and what it takes to ensure that people have freedom of choice and the opportunity to thrive. Before 2012, the state relied on large, segregated adult care homes to serve people with serious mental illnesses. Those conditions resemble what this memo would now treat as legally acceptable. The DOJ found that this reliance violated the ADA and Olmstead, and that the resulting agreement required the state to build supportive housing and community-based services.

Building that capacity took the state more than a decade, several extensions, and sustained public investment, and the work continues today. The work required new levels of cross-sector collaboration between the housing and health sector state and community leaders.  That investment has helped thousands of North Carolinians leave institutional settings for homes of their own.

The DOJ memo targets the very tool that drove progress. North Carolina’s problem was a shortage of housing and services. The legal expectation to integrate is what finally pushed the state to address the shortage. Removing that expectation, while the capacity gap remains, abandons people in the middle of a transition that is finally helping them.

Stepping back from community-based housing and services will push more people, and more cost, onto public systems. Institutional and crisis care is much more expensive than supportive housing, by many estimates more than three times as much per person. Without stable housing to exit to, that spending recirculates through repeated hospitalizations, law enforcement contacts, and time in jail, with little lasting stability to show for it.

The evidence of the last quarter century points in one direction. Supportive housing and community-based care improve health, strengthen communities, and reduce reliance on costly crisis systems. As policymakers and state leaders study this memo, the strongest path forward is to follow the evidence and build on community integration for people with disabilities by: expanding supportive housing, strengthening access to mental health and substance use care, and ensuring a full continuum of support that meets people where they are.

CSH remains committed to working with federal, state, and local partners so that every person has access to safe, stable housing and the support they need to thrive in the community.

Supportive housing combines affordable housing with supportive services to help people who face the most complex challenges live with stability, autonomy, and dignity. CSH created these standards to guide a wide range of groups—including tenant leaders, housing developers, landlords, service providers, funders, property managers, government officials, and health care organizations—to work together to build and operate high-quality supportive housing.

The Quality Standards apply to all types of projects, whether site-based or scattered-site, and in rural, suburban, or urban areas. How the standards are put into practice may vary due to the diversity of supportive housing models.

Yesterday, the New York City Council passed Intro 1100-A, a new law that expands access to City-funded supportive housing for individuals transitioning out of incarceration. CSH led advocacy efforts for the bill, working closely with local partners. Council Member Carlina Rivera sponsored the legislation and built support among her colleagues.

At a press conference outside City Hall, Lauren Velez, Director of CSH’s Metro NY Team, explained why passing the new law is so important:

“Too often, our neighbors leaving Rikers get trapped in a cycle of homelessness and incarceration without ever receiving the services and support they need to stabilize their lives. Intro 1100 changes that,” Velez said. She added, “When people cycle through homelessness and incarceration, it’s costly for New York taxpayers and makes our communities less safe.”

Velez was joined by Council Member Rivera, Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and representatives from the Supportive Housing Network of New York, Fortune Society, Freedom Agenda, Urban Pathways, and Coalition for the Homeless.

Read City Limits op-ed written by Lauren Velez and Council Member Carlina Rivera.

What the Law Changes

Before this legislation, a person experiencing homelessness and who was incarcerated for 90 days or longer would have the jail time considered a “break” in homelessness, and none of their time in jail could be counted toward eligibility for supportive housing.

Intro 1100 ensures that anyone who enters jail as a person who is homeless will continue to accrue time toward eligibility. CSH has long maintained that any kind of institution, particularly a jail, should never be considered a home in any circumstance.

Why It Matters

The need for reform is urgent. In 2023:
– One-third of people admitted to NYC jails were unhoused before incarceration.
– More than 40% of people released from state prisons to NYC entered shelters immediately.

Supportive housing is a proven solution for people who cycle between homelessness and incarceration—especially those living with mental illness or substance use disorders. In contrast, punitive approaches like forced treatment or incarceration often fail to connect people to long-term housing and services.

Acknowledgments

CSH thanks Council Member Rivera, Comptroller Lander, Public Advocate Williams, and the “Jail is Not a Home” committee members who helped make this legislation possible:

– Lily Shapiro, Fortune Society (co-chair)
– Tierra Labrada, Supportive Housing Network of NY (co-chair)
– Kandra Clark, Urban Pathways
– Gary Jenkins, Urban Pathways
– Alison Wilkey, Coalition for the Homeless
– Sarita Daftary, Freedom Agenda
– Dr. Victoria Phillips, Community Advocate
– JJ Parish, Urban Justice
– Reggie Chatman, Fortune Society

CSH Calls for Balanced Policy That Protects Both Housing and Health Supports

The Senate’s passage of the reconciliation bill presents a deeply mixed outcome for the supportive housing field. While we acknowledge the inclusion of important housing provisions such as expanding and making permanent the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and the New Markets Tax Credit, we cannot overlook the harmful trade-offs embedded in this legislation.

These housing investments, while significant, are not sufficient to offset the damage caused by provisions that undermine access to essential healthcare and basic supports for people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. The bill imposes new barriers to Medicaid and nutrition assistance that will disproportionately impact individuals with complex health and housing needs. These are the very people supportive housing is designed to serve.

Supportive housing succeeds because it pairs affordable homes with the services that help people stay housed and maintain their health. When the government restricts access to those services, it weakens the entire model. Limiting state Medicaid funding tools, imposing burdensome recertification requirements, and expanding work requirements for vulnerable populations all threaten the stability and well-being of those we serve.

CSH remains committed to advancing effective policies that recognize the interconnectedness of housing, healthcare, and human services. We urge Congress to consider the full impact of this legislation, not just its housing investments, but also the barriers it creates for those most in need and the burdens it places on the communities in their districts. We will continue to work with partners across sectors to ensure that supportive housing remains a viable and effective solution to homelessness and housing insecurity.
 
Deborah De Santis
CSH President and CEO

This resource is intended to support health centers in identifying some important components to effective programming for HIV+ individuals leaving carceral settings to ensure smooth linkage to care and housing following discharge.

Our work in supportive housing has shown repeatedly that people with incarceration histories can be successful tenants when connected with appropriate housing and services. Further, it is a smart public investment that reduces crisis and institutional costs and increases public safety. Still, there are many misconceptions around providing housing to residents with justice system involvement. In this document, we break down common myths for landlords and property managers regarding renting to people who have conviction and arrest history records. This document was created in collaboration with people with lived expertise of homelessness and the justice system. By dispelling common myths about people with justice system involvement, we can remove barriers to housing.

This guide helps supportive housing providers improve their relationships with local law enforcement. Fostering positive relationships between supportive housing staff and law enforcement can lead to better outcomes for supportive housing tenants and the broader community.

This includes reducing emergency response, addressing root causes around law enforcement engagement (e.g. mental health needs), enhancing public safety, and reducing criminalization of tenants. By working together, supportive housing providers and law enforcement can create a more compassionate and effective approach to addressing homelessness. 

Supportive Housing is an evidence-based solution that combines affordable housing with tenant-centered support services to help people who face complex health challenges, including mental health and substance use disorders, get and stay housed. It’s been shown to reduce returns to jail and homelessness, as well as engagement with emergency services such as shelters, emergency rooms, and law enforcement.

In New York City, Justice Involved Supportive Housing (JISH) is specifically designed for individuals leaving Rikers who are at risk of homelessness and in need of behavioral health support. It aims to keep them stably housed and prevent further use of jails, shelter, and/or other emergency services.