Community Based Prevention Providers and Leaders

A youth experiencing homelessness holding a model of a house in front of black pavement.
  • Identifying Family Housing Stability is a framework to identify and address housing stability of families far upstream from crisis like homeless and child welfare reports.  ​
  • Embedding this framework into family strengthen services, builds toward a coordinated pathway to safe and stable housing for families that reduces their burdens and increases support that can prevent instances of homelessness and child welfare involvement. ​
  • Community-based agencies providing family strengthening and supports do not need to be housing experts yet should play a critical role in identifying housing needs and ensuring families are connected to and can access appropriate housing resources and services.​

Common Language

Housing Terms

  • To be filled in

Child Welfare Terms – three primary goals:

  • Safety – the degree to which a child can be free from physical or emotional harm. CW agencies work to support children and families, protect children from abuse and neglect and arrange for safe and secure living situations for children whose homes are unsafe​
  • Permanency – a permanent, stable living situation, ideally one in which family connections are preserved​
  • Well-Being – encompasses mental, behavioral, emotional, and social functioning as well as physical health and development​

Overview

  • Safe, quality housing is a protective factor and the foundation for safety, permanency and wellbeing.​
  • Housing provides a critical foundation for safe, stable and thriving families. ​
  • Housing is also an essential component of strong and thriving communities.​
  • Identifying family housing stability and connecting to housing resources helps our family strengthening systems to be comprehensive, integrated communities that support child and family well-being. ​
Hand choosing mini wood house model from a row of wooden houses on a table.

Introduction

  • Safe and stable housing is one component of supporting primary prevention efforts. ​
  • Lack of stable housing and poverty-related issues affect child placement decisions. Frequently the lack of stable and suitable housing, delays family reunification. Yet most states do not have policies that permit removing a child due to housing instability.​
  • By identifying housing stability needs, public child welfare and community-based, family strengthening agencies can actively change practice and culture to support and strengthen families’ housing.​
  • Strengthening the housing stability of families can go a long way toward reducing childhood adversity and disparities across the Social Determinants of Health, thereby enhancing family opportunities to thrive. ​
  • This framework and tool will help you to identify family housing stability, deepen your understanding the housing needs of families you work with and then guide workers and families in the direction of resources and supports to address those housing needs, building a coordinated pathway to safe and stable housing.​

References

Farrell, A., Randall, K., Britner, P., & Reynolds, J. (2015). Universal Housing Screening of Families Undergoing Child Welfare Investigation: Technical Report on CT’s Pilot of the QRAFT. Storrs, CT: UConn Center for Applied Research in Human Development.

What do we know about the impact of homelessness and housing instability on child welfare-involved families? – Casey Family Programs

Full Report

The TAY Triage Tool: A Tool to Identify Homeless Transition Age Youth Most in Need of Permanent Supportive Housing

A data-informed tool to help providers and systems identify and prioritize homeless youth who need a housing intervention that is permanently affordable with wrap-around support services and not time-limited.  The TAY Triage Tool is very brief and made up of relatively non-invasive questions that, when delivered in a conversational format, is not just a supportive housing prioritization tool, but also a case management tool.

The tool identifies six experiences that increase a young person’s risk of experiencing five or more years of homelessness.  With each experience endorsed, the risk that the young person will experience five or more years of homelessness doubles.  We know that the longer a young person is homeless on the street, the higher their experiences of trauma, violence, substance abuse, and exploitation.  The report contains profiles of youth who endorsed five-to-six of the experiences identified in the TAY Triage Tool, and it’s clear that the experiences in the Triage Tool are indicators of many other challenges that the youth are facing.

Download the PDF

 

Overview

Methodology Brief

Go to the TAY Triage Tool Table of Contents.

Webinar

With six relatively non-invasive questions, CSH panelists demonstrate how the TAY Triage Tool can identify homeless youth and young adults with the highest barriers to accessing and maintaining stable housing. Communities are applying the TAY Triage Tool questions in different ways, including informing housing capacity planning. This webcast presents the research behind the tool, highlights how several communities are applying the tool, and shows what we’re learning from the data. Participants leave with concrete knowledge of how to use the TAY Triage Tool in their community, at the system or agency level.

View the webcast recording

 

Full Pilots Report

Confirming Validity Brief

Go to the TAY Triage Tool Table of Contents.

Confirming Validity Brief

Early Results of TAY Triage Tool: Confirming Validity Outside of Los Angeles

The intention of the TAY Triage Tool is to identify youth and young adults most in need of a long-term housing intervention with supportive services, such as supportive housing. However, in working with different communities to utilize the TAY Triage Tool, it became clear that the tool could also be implemented to inform system-level housing and service planning.

This report details the results of preliminary implementation of the TAY Triage Tool in several communities, and resulting findings regarding the validity of the tool and its generalizability.

Download the PDF

 

Full Pilots Report

Webinar

Go to the TAY Triage Tool Table of Contents.