Housing Services Training 2016 Welcome to Housing Services training for the 2016 Emergency Shelter Housing Assistance Program (ESHAP)!

What are we Going to Cover Today? Define Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing The importance of mindset when it comes to housing – building a housing culture Taking care of our landlords Follow up services/housing retention What to do when things go wrong (they will)? And lots, lots more!

What is the One Known Cure for Homelessness? Employment? Substance Abuse Treatment? Med Compliance? Corrections? Therapy? Relocation?

The Only Known Cure for Homelessness is… HOUSING!

Wow, That Sounds Easy Right? All of those things we mentioned are important, but are not essential to end someone’s homelessness We are looking at two distinct types of housing interventions/ideologies Rapid Re-Housing Housing First

Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) Rapid re-housing is the practice of focusing resources on helping families and individuals quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing, which is usually housing in the private market. Services to support rapid re-housing include housing search and landlord negotiation, short-term financial and rental assistance, and the delivery of home-based housing stabilization services, as needed. Priority is placed on helping individuals and families move into permanent housing as rapidly as possible and providing services to help them maintain housing. -USICH Website

Housing First Definition Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness that centers on providing people experiencing homelessness with housing as quickly as possible – and then providing services as needed. This approach has the benefit of being consistent with what most people experiencing homelessness want and seek help to achieve. – NAEH Website

RRH is the Mechanism, Housing First is the Ethos Essentially, we are going to try and house people as fast as we can using a Housing First methodology This doesn’t mean we are going to be reckless or act without our client’s best interest in mind – an appropriate housing match will give people the best possible shot at success

Housing First Approach There is no cookie cutter approach to Housing First services. People who have experienced chronic homelessness will generally need much more intensive services than people who are homeless for a short period of time (we’ll cover this later). However, the basic idea remains the same. No strings attached housing. No hoops to jump through, no programs to complete in order to qualify for the right to be housed. Housing people and keeping them housed is really hard, that’s where you come in!

It’s Housing First, Not Housing Reckless The work we do is professional in it’s nature and to do it well requires critical thinking, problem solving, network building, strategic thinking, sales, creativity, analytic planning, drive and compassion There is an organization called OrgCode which provides training, tools (such as the VI-SPDAT) and support for service providers. I will use some of their stuff along with my experience in this training today orgcode.com – check them out!

Be Strategic, Be Realistic, Be Awesome We have to know the population we serve We simply cannot be the be all – end all for the people we serve Be strategic in your service delivery – we are on our way in Maine with the LTS initiative and implementation of the VI-SPDAT & other initiative Please don’t make promises you can’t keep! Do not have a first come, first serve model for housing services

Housing is a Mindset, are your Services Housing Focused? Conversations focused on housing and exiting your shelters should happen right from the jump For services to be effective, you need to meet people where they are at Allow your clients to make choices (even if you don’t approve of their choices)

Housing Mindset Continued Provide services in non-traditional settings… in apartments, in the shelters, in the community. Make sure every client has a unique Housing Stability Plan (HSP) that reflects their goals Goals on HSP’s should be short-term and attainable, referrals to mainstream resources is key – let’s look at an HSP

Shelters Should be a Judgment Free Zone! Do not coerce or judge your clients – how many times have we heard colleagues judge or disparage our clients? I have. Lots of times…

Quick Hits Reminder: Neither sobriety nor treatment/med compliance are preconditions of housing success Try to integrate clients into the community once they’re housed Isolation = returns to homelessness

Understand the Landlord’s Point of View! For those of you doing housing work now, what are some of the things you’re doing to work with landlords? I cannot emphasize enough the importance of approaching your work from the LL’s perspective! Most LL’s would love to help but we need to show them how we can benefit their business – ideas? Follow up, guaranteed rent, pre-screened tenants, less turnover & need for advertising vacant units

Let’s Focus on Follow Up Services for a Moment Clients WILL require in home support to ensure success – some more than others, this is where individualized HSP’s come into play Again, scheduling office visits and monitoring from afar will not get the job done. You need to observe the client’s apartment to gauge their need for services Remember, it is a Federal program requirement to follow up with your clients at LEAST once every thirty days – we have a great report that can track this and forms we can supply for tracking in the paper files

Follow Up Continued Generally, the longer someone has been homeless the more intensive services they will need once housing is procured – clients will eventually need you less and less if you are doing your job and making referrals to mainstream resources and supporting them in their homes For many clients, especially long term stayers on chronically homeless people frequent in home visits are beyond vital – they are essential

We are Professional Problem Solvers Successful housing programs do not happen by accident, it’s really hard to do it well – remember that It’s also important to remember that no matter how strategic we are, how hard we work, how proactive we are – things are going to go wrong When things do go wrong, it will usually be one of several common issues…

Be Proactive, Try to Have Plans for Each of these Scenarios Guests/Partying – Encourage clients to develop their own guest policy, be the bad guy if you have to Payment of Rent – Remember, take care of your LL’s. Use direct deposit, work on budgeting, make sure LL’s are getting paid on time Boundary Issues – Maintain professional boundaries at all times, your clients don’t need a friend they need a professional

More Fun Stuff! Pests – Talk about this with your clients, observe for warning signs yourself during your home visits Pets – Make sure your clients understand their lease before they move into any unit, talk specifically about pets Conflict – Be prepared to mediate conflicts with LL’s, property managers or other tenants in the building Damages – Again, home visits are vital look for signs of damage and be prepared to work with LL’s on this issue

QUESTIONS? Thank you so much for coming today and participating in our 2016 ESHAP training! We are so excited to work with you over the next year to help as many people end their homelessness as possible!