1 Rapid Re-Housing: An Overview Welcome Home: Addressing Today's Challenges in Homeless Services June 2, 2009 .

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Rapid Re-Housing: An Overview

Welcome Home: Addressing Today's Challenges in Homeless Services

June 2, 2009

www.homewardva.org

Purpose

The goal for this presentation is to provide an overview of Rapid Re-housing including

• a discussion of key program features,• Homeward’s rapid re-housing initiative in the Richmond

area, and• a discussion of how rapid re-housing fits into HPRP

stimulus funds.

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What is Rapid Re-Housing?

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Rapid re-housing is a service model designed to immediately return those who are losing or lost their housing back to permanent housing and to shorten the length of shelter stays for families and individuals.

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Connecting your Community’s Ten Year Plan with Rapid Re-housing

Goal One: Transform the homeless services delivery system to focus on housing stability. Develop and sustain a public-private system of services and resources for very low income persons that enables those experiencing homelessness to be rapidly re-housed in affordable permanent housing.

How is Rapid Re-housing Different?

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Rapid Re-housing asks

Traditional Models ask

Our Model for Rapid Re-housing

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Goal: Families move back into permanent housing quickly and are connected to community-based services.

What Are the Benefits?

• Improved cost effectiveness

• Ability to serve more people

• Increased ability to provide intensive

resources to those most in need

• Decreased length of stays in

homelessness

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Outcomes for Families

• Length of stay in shelter

• Turn-aways from shelters

• Families placed in hotels

– Hennepin County had 50%

reduction in average length of

shelter stay.

• Performance outcomes

• Well-being of children

• Housing retention

– Norfolk had 88% housing

retention after 3 months.

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Programmatic Features

• Philosophical shift that considers housing stability for all

families.

• Early housing assessment is necessary to identify barriers.

• Homeless services case plans are based on findings from

housing assessment and interventions are focused on

helping families maintain housing.

• Matching the intensity of services provided to the

families’ need(s).

• Other service needs can be addressed after families find

permanent housing through home-based services .

Partners for Collaboration

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Homeward’s Collaborative Rapid Re-housing Demonstration

in the Richmond Area

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Key Provisions

• Target population: Families with low to moderate housing barriers currently in emergency shelter.

• Serve at least 50 families with approximately $70k for subsidies and $5k for cost associated with housing brokerage.

• Based on the Hennepin County Model which relies on a coordinating entity using subcontracted relationships to execute program functions.

• Homeward will not provide any direct services but will convene and coordinate the process to implement the grant.

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Desired Project Outcomes

• A reduction in the median length of homelessness for families.

• Decrease in the number of families who return to shelter after exit.

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Project Components

• Intake and assessment of family housing needs

• Short-term emergency sheltering• Administration of housing brokerage and

placement services• Provision of short-term rental subsidies, when

needed• Home-based aftercare and case management• On-going technical assistance, evaluation, and

general oversight

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How does this funding relate to the HPRP funds?

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Coordinating Efforts

• Homeward is working with non-profit services providers and local governments to ensure that stimulus funds are maximized.

• With HPRP Funds and Homeward’s RRH demonstration, our community will be able to

• Prevent families with children from entering into homelessness,

• Prevent single adults from entering into homelessness,

• Rapidly re-house families with children living in emergency shelter into permanent housing,

• Rapidly re-house single adults living in emergency shelter into permanent housing,

• Rapidly re-house families with children in transitional shelters into permanent housing,

• Rapidly re-house single adults living in transitional shelters into housing.

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Thank you!

If you have additional questions, please contact Erika Jones-Haskins, Director of Program Initiatives at

[email protected].

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