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Advancing Equity through Data

A New Tool from CSH

Today’s emergency punctuates the deep racial and ethnic disparities in our communities and across the country. Efforts to build multi-sector partnerships to create and sustain change grounded in equity have long been hampered by system-level data silos. The lack of multi-sector efforts to collect and analyze data has prevented holistic approaches to meaningfully address the root causes of racialized inequities.

To address this critical gap, CSH developed a Racial Disparities and Disproportionality Index (“RDDI”) that looks at 16 unique systems and measures whether a racial and/or ethnic group’s representation in a particular public system is proportionate to, over, or below their representation in the overall population (proportionality) and also allows for the examination of systematic differences between groups and geographies (disparities).

Data is the guide, not the destination and this tool is in service of achieving more equitable outcomes for those most impacted and disproportionately represented across crisis systems. 

This this is also a call to action: at a systems level we must move beyond silos and aggregated data to inclusive and disaggregated data in order to address inequities with purpose. As individuals we must ensure racial and ethnic data is collected, reported, and used to inform our programs and the outcomes we pursue. 

Data matters, but only in service of designing a more just and equitable world.

-Deb De Santis
 President & CEO

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New Webinar Series: The Supportive Housing Field Responds to COVID-19

Thursday April 2
1:00-1:30 PM ET

The supportive housing community, from providers to developers to policymakers, is stepping up to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Join CSH on Thursday, April 2 for the kickoff of a webinar series designed for anyone providing and housing and services in this crisis where we will:

  • highlight what we have learned in the past week;
  • provide examples of best practices from communities across the country; and
  • discuss what information and resources the field needs.

The webinars will be 30 minutes. Initially scheduled as weekly for the next 10 weeks, the frequency may change to meet the needs of the industry. The content and focus of the webinar will evolve with the pandemic and the response to it.

Standards for Quality Supportive Housing Guidebook

In creating and sharing the CSH Standards for Quality Supportive Housing, CSH strives to:

  • Build the capacity of the supportive and affordable housing industries to create and operate high quality,
    effective, and sustainable supportive housing units
  • Encourage the investment of adequate resources, especially from public systems, to support that
    capacity
  • Ensure that existing resources for supportive housing are being used efficiently and effectively,
    and support the allocation of new resources
  • Create better outcomes for supportive housing tenants, especially those with multiple barriers to
    housing stability

You Can Make A Difference Today

For RWJF "Keeping Families Together" BRONX, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Jose Soto, his wife, Evelyn, and their daughter Destiny, 3, spend time together in their apartment and neighborhood in the Bronx, New York May 19, 2010.

It's Giving Tuesday

 

Today nonprofit organizations, local businesses, philanthropists and people like you come together to promote and participate in giving to ensure better, vibrant and stronger communities throughout the country.

We hope you will take a few minutes this morning to support CSH, the national leader in creating access to affordable housing and support services for vulnerable people and families.

CSH is elevating the needs of families like Sonya, Joe and their daughter, Katie, impacted by serious mental health issues, recurring homelessness and repeat involvement with child welfare agencies. To escape their downward spiral of trauma and despair, they needed a safe, stable and affordable home as well as access to mental health and other services. Supportive housing came to their rescue with a nice apartment, and the case management and the recovery programs they need to move forward, together, as a family.

There are thousands of families like Sonya, Joe and Katie who need our help. Your tax-deductible gift can transform their lives from hopelessness to ones where they are housed and healthy.

We thank you for your support and generosity.

 

Click Here to Donate to CSH Now

Now Available - Conducting Homeless Counts on Native Lands: A Toolkit

Homelessness and the need for supportive housing on tribal lands are not well understood.  Better understanding the size, scope, and needs of homeless individuals can give Tribes the leverage they need to advocate for the public resources that they need for housing and services.  To this end, CSH is excited to release a new resource titled Conducting Homeless Counts on Native Lands: A Toolkit.  CSH and Housing Assistance Council (HAC) collaborated with tribal entities, tribal funding agencies and Wilder Research to create this unique toolkit that can be used by tribal entities as a guide to conducting homelessness counts.  Funded by HUD, this toolkit includes a literature review of overcrowding and tribal housing information, the experiences and lessons learned from the Minnesota reservation homelessness survey, examples of memorandums of understanding, the survey tool used in Minnesota, tribal government resolutions and case studies.

The manifestation of homelessness is different on native lands than in other areas of the United States, and Tribes often have their own traditional ways of understanding homelessness.  It is important that efforts to quantify homelessness in these areas take these differences into account in order to get counts that accurately reflect the size of the population and cultural definitions of homelessness.  This toolkit describes the process undertaken in Minnesota by several Tribes, CSH, Wilder Research and the Minnesota Department of Human Services developed to better understand homelessness and related service needs.  This toolkit was created, not only as a flexible guide, but to increase awareness and to share information about what homelessness looks like on native lands.

CSH would like to acknowledge and thank the many individuals that contributed to the content of this toolkit, in particular our colleagues at the Housing Assistance Council that invited us to partner with them, and Amy Wicklund, Economic Development Planner at Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for sharing their real world experiences.

Conducting Homeless Counts on Native Lands: A Toolkit

CSH and Housing Assistance Council (HAC) collaborated with tribal entities, tribal funding agencies and Wilder Research to create this unique toolkit that can be used by tribal entities as a guide to conducting homelessness counts.  Funded by HUD, this toolkit includes a literature review of overcrowding and tribal housing information, the experiences and lessons learned from the Minnesota reservation homelessness survey, examples of memorandums of understanding, the survey tool used in Minnesota, tribal government resolutions and case studies.

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Anniversary Interview Series with Chairwoman Karen Diver

What have we learned about who needs supportive housing and who doesn’t?

Karen Diver: Supportive Housing is for the chronic and long-term homeless who face multiple barriers to retaining housing.  Some people face short-term housing loss due to financial crisis;  Supportive housing best serves those individuals and families who struggle with combinations of chemical dependency, mental health and health  issues, lack of life skills and formal education, to name a few.   The case management has been shown to reduce the use of crisis services like emergency room care, detox services, and child welfare.

What have we learned from supportive housing’s experience in homelessness and how this lesson can be applied to other sectors?

Diver: We have learned that prevention services have a significant impact on the use of crisis care.  By offering tenants the opportunity and support, we see reductions in duration of alcohol and chemical use, better management of chronic health conditions and decreased contact with law enforcement and judicial systems.

What are the most promising policy opportunities?

Diver: A committed long-term investment in Supportive Housing offers opportunity for multi-agency collaboration.  We have seen this happening at the local level in developing the service models.  At the federal level, this is not being done as yet.  There are the beginnings of conversations around veteran’s housing between the VA and HUD.  This needs to be expanding to the Department of Health and Human Services among others to coordinate and leverage funding strategies and partnerships.

Given all the economic constraints, how do you make the case or what is the most compelling argument for supportive housing?

Diver: Obviously with social services and other governmental systems feeling budgetary strain, investment in supportive housing has shown to have positive impacts in long-term costs to multiple systems of government, from law enforcement to the judiciary, mental health and chemical dependency commitments, truancy and child welfare.  Just as health care reform is focusing on investment in prevention, to the most vulnerable in our society supportive housing offers a housing first options with services that focuses on reducing crisis intervention.

In 10 years from now what will supportive housing look like / what role will it play in our community?  What is your most radical bold vision?

Diver: Supportive Housing will be better coordinated with the existing systems of housing  and social service delivery, with stable funding to assure both rental subsidies and case management systems.  Communities will have capacity to make sure that every person has the ability to sleep in a bed and adequate food, with the option to truly thrive in future.

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