Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness This document contains all of the text of CSH’s online Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness. While the Toolkit is designed to be a web-based resource, we recognize that some people will prefer to read the Toolkit in a paper format. For all of the interactive links, photo tours, and sample documents, please use the Toolkit online at www.csh.org/toolkit. Introduction This Toolkit highlights some of the most promising practices for ending long-term homelessness today. The projects and programs represented here are making real strides toward ending homelessness in our country by serving those who have been historically underserved. In addition to key lessons learned by supportive housing projects and programs across the country, the Toolkit includes profiles of systems-wide strategies for working with this population, photo tours of supportive housing projects from around the country, sample documents from supportive housing service teams and property managers, and a listing of key additional tools. We hope that this Toolkit is a significant contribution to the resources available to help end long-term homelessness. Over the last few years, CSH, its partners around the country, many community-based organizations, and cities, states, and the federal government have committed to and invested in ending long-term homelessness. Closer to Home, a recent report by Sue Barrow of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, offers some important keys to understanding this population: People who are homeless for the long term tend to be estranged from mainstream supports. At the same time, they can and do access services and can and do achieve housing retention. Key barriers to housing included an admission process that is often too complex, daunting, and stigmatizing, as well as too many entry requirements. While low-demand housing seems to work for many, there is no single best form of housing for this population. Closer to Home shows that the recent emphasis on serving those who have been homeless for the long term does not require a new or different type of supportive housing. Rather, small changes in program structure can greatly help many homeless people in our country who have not been well-served by past efforts. Explore, learn, and question. Whether you’re ready to take action or still pondering, the examples included here are intended to help supportive housing developers, service providers, and property managers strengthen their capacity to serve individuals and families who have been homeless for the long term. This Toolkit was made possible by the generous support of the MetLife Foundation. Corporation for Supportive Housing: Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness October 2004 Page 1 of 98 Summary of Profiles These nine profiles are of projects and organizations from across the country that are working to serve people who have been homeless for the long term. Each of these profiles gives a basic introduction to the project or organization, and also goes in-depth in a specific topic of particular promise for ending long-term homelessness. Anishinabe Wakiagun Canon Barcus Cedar Hill Community Engagement Program Jericho Project Kentucky Housing Corporation Lamp Lodge Outreach Center Apartments These four profiles look at systems-wide strategies for ending long-term homelessness in four parts of the country. These profiles give examples of cities or states that are setting the stage for high-quality supportive housing to serve the most difficult to serve. Chicago New York San Francisco Design Standards Anishinabe Wakiagun, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is home to 40 homeless long-term alcohol users, many of whom are American Indian. Anishinabe Wakiagun pays particular attention to matching physical design of the building with its population. Canon Barcus, located in San Francisco, California, is a 48-unit permanent supportive housing apartment building for homeless, very low-income families living with special needs, particularly those related to substance use, mental health, and/or HIV/AIDS. Canon Barcus staff and their colleagues in San Francisco are at the forefront of providing supportive housing for families. Cedar Hill, located in New Haven, Connecticut, has 25 efficiency apartments for formerly homeless and dually diagnosed adults. Cedar Hill offers promising practices in their collaboration between property management and support services staff, as well as tenant involvement programs. The Community Engagement Program, located in Portland, Oregon, is serving the long- term homeless population by pairing permanent housing with customized employment services for up to 89 individuals. The team stresses the benefits of employment to each individual’s rehabilitation and recovery process. Corporation for Supportive Housing: Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness October 2004 Page 2 of 98 Deborah’s Place, a program serving women in Chicago, Illinois, offers a continuum of services including permanent supportive housing. Deborah’s Place demonstrates promising practices in the areas of eviction prevention and tenant education. Jericho Project, is a nonprofit organization that owns, operates, and provides services for supportive housing in New York City. Jericho has implemented program changes as they place increase attention on serving the long-term homeless. Kentucky Housing Corporation, a state housing finance agency, shares thoughts about how supportive housing in rural areas is different from more urban supportive housing. Two housing providers in rural eastern Kentucky share their specific experiences with rural long- term homelessness. Lamp Lodge is a 48-unit permanent supportive housing project for homeless single adults with severe mental illness. The project, built in 1991, is located in downtown Los Angeles and is a component in Lamp Community’s array of services for people homeless for the long term. Outreach Center Apartments in Cloquet, Minnesota are five apartments with supportive services built above a consumer-run drop-in center for individuals with mental health issues. This project is a particularly good example of a small, rural service provider developing supportive housing while facing community concern and opposition. Chicago successful applied for funds from the federal Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness to create a harm reduction model of permanent supportive housing for 59 long-term homeless individuals. The collaborative initiative required for application and implementation is a model for other cities. New York City’s Hard-to-Place Task Force serves as a model of city-state interagency collaboration to address long-term homelessness. The task force meets regularly and has made significant progress toward improving services for those who are homeless for the long-term. San Francisco has been focusing on supportive housing for ending long-term homelessness since the mid-1990’s. Much of the city’s investment in supportive housing has come from dedicated financing sources, included a general obligation bond issued by the city and a dedicated portion of the city’s hotel tax. Design standards universal to supportive housing for the long-term homeless have yet to be fully developed. From the experience of a property manager in Connecticut, we share these ideas. Corporation for Supportive Housing: Toolkit for Ending Long-Term Homelessness October 2004 Page 3 of 98 Anishinabe Wakiagun: Designing for Tenants Supportive housing is often designed by architects who have little familiarity with the day-to-day lives and needs of formerly homeless tenants. By working closely with architects during the design of a new building, supportive housing tenants and owners can make valuable suggestions that improve the quality of life of future tenants. Anishinabe Wakiagun was completed in 1996 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to serve homeless chronic inebriates, many of whom are Native American. The design concepts used in this building specifically for this population not only illustrate the results of a collaborative design process, but also may be useful in supportive housing generally. The foremost consideration in construction Anishinabe Wakiagun was to create a very durable, low maintenance Prairie-style facility scaled to homelike proportions and yet large enough to house 40 residents. The design avoids any appearances of “boarding school” that had traumatized so many residents in their youth and yet is attractive and comfortable. Many residents need crutches and wheelchairs, so accessibility was paramount, including site access for frequent emergency vehicles. Most residents are heavy smokers, so care was also made to ensure as much fireproof construction as possible. Sobriety is not a condition of tenancy at Anishinabe Wakiagun, and many of the tenants are regular drinkers. To address this, hallways are deliberately narrower than usual to enable residents who are staggering to use walls for support in getting to their rooms. Glass blocks bring daylight into the hall from the rooms and at night allow visitors and staff to see if lights are on or off without having to knock on a tenant’s door. Three stairways and an elevator large enough for a medical gurney ensure that support staff can get to any of the residential and day rooms quickly in emergencies. Security cameras are strategically placed both inside and out to provide staff with a panoramic view of the whole site; a video recorder is connected