1. Collaborating Across Systems
Hi, I’m Patricia McLean. I have worked for Human Solutions, which is located in Portland, for 16 years. I am the Home to Work Collaborative Project Manager and am evaluating the Economic Opportunity Program Rent Assistance Project. This is the collaboration we are going to present today.
“Research and experience shows us the single most important factor that determines the long-term success of networks and collaborative efforts of all kinds is not strategy, structure, systems, or technology, but rather the quality and strength of the relationships that develop between its members.” David Sawyer & Nick Viele, partners at Converge for Impact
Research and experience shows us the single most important factor that determines the long-term success of networks and collaborative efforts of all kinds is not strategy, structure, systems, or technology, but rather the quality and strength of the relationships that develop between its members.
– David Sawyer & Nick Viele, Converge for Impact

2. Collaborating Across Systems Presenters & Agenda
Jaclyn Eaton, Home Forward Patricia McLean, Human Solutions Jake Mendenhall, Central City Concern Katia Selezneva, Human Solutions Blair Shaffer-Bisht, Worksystems
Also here to present the collaboration are Blair Schaffer-Bisht, Senior Project Manager at Worksystems, Jaclyn Eaton, Program Design Manager at Home Forward, Jake Mendenhall, Career Coach at Central City Concern, and Katia Selezneva, Rent Assistance Coordinator at Human Solutions. They will participate in a panel discussion following my short slide presentation and help facilitate the workgroup session.
After the panel, we will break up into smaller groups to discuss identifying potential collaborative partners and some key ingredients for successful collaboration across systems.
First I will be providing some background information about the collaborative partners, about the program itself, some of the challenges, outcomes, and sustainability for the project.
Collaboration – Slide Presentation to 20 minutes
Panel Discussion & Q&A – 30 minutes
Workgroup Session – 30 minutes

3. Workforce Development Board for Multnomah and Washington Counties
Designs, develops and administers workforce development programs at Worksource centers
Coordinates the 7 non-profits providing career coaching for participants in the Economic Opportunity Program:
Central City Concern
Constructing Hope
Human Solutions, Inc.
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
SE Works
Self Enhancement Inc.
The next three slides introduce the collaborative partners.
Worksystems is the Workforce Development Board for Multnomah and Washington Counties. For those of you who aren’t familiar with workforce development boards, these boards received federal funds from the Department of Labor to run local American job centers and provide training and job placement services to the public. In Oregon, the American job centers are called Worksource.
Work Matters
To people. To business. To community

4. Regional Housing Authority for Multnomah County
Provides 6,000+ units of affordable housing
Housing Choice Vouchers and Project Based Vouchers
Administers Short Term Rent Assistance programs, funded by Federal and local governments (EOP Rent Assistance funds are Federal)
Home Forward is the regional housing authority for Multnomah County and has been providing housing for low income residents of Multnomah County for 70 years.
Home Forward contracts with local non-profit organizations who manage the STRA programs, providing direct services to families and individuals. EOP RA funds are Federal dollars.
Worksystems and Home Forward established a working relationship partnering on Housing Works where Worksystems was the grant leader and administrator of the program developed to prepare public housing residents to find living-wage jobs.
Hope. Access. Potential

5. Building Pathways out of Poverty
Community Development Corporation, with 720 units of affordable housing with Resident Services
Anti-poverty organization providing direct services for low-income residents of Multnomah County
Energy, Rent, and Employment assistance
Year-round low barrier shelters
for homeless families
for single women survivors of domestic violence
Distributes EOP Rent Assistance funds
Human Solutions has been providing affordable housing and services for low-income families and individuals for 27 years.
Together, Human Solutions’ two, year-round, low barrier shelters are serving more than 300 individuals every night.
Human Solutions has a long-standing, positive relationship with Home Forward through successfully managing numerous STRA programs over nearly two decades. The agency also has a strong relationship with Worksystems having partnered with the organization to provide employment services for low-income people for 8 years.
Building Pathways out of Poverty

6. Evolved out of the 10-year plan to end homelessness
Continuum of Care for Multnomah County
Executive Board
Coordinating Board
Advisory Forum (Consumers & Providers)
Workgroups - Population & Initiative specific
Administers local and Federal housing dollars
Coordinates with the new Joint Office
(Portland Housing Bureau and Multnomah County)
A Home for Everyone evolved out of the housing systems revision of 10-year plan to end homelessness that took place in 2012, convened by the City of Portland, Multnomah County and Home Forward and now includes the City of Gresham.
AHFE s now the Continuum of Care for Multnomah County, administering local and Federal housing dollars.
Executive board reviews information that flows to it from the coordinating board, ad hoc workgroups, consumers and providers, and from collected data, and evaluations.
This is a broad based effort to consider and address the myriad factors leading to, and perpetuating homelessness in Multnomah County.
Near the end of fiscal year, AHFE approved the Employment Workgroup’s recommendation for additional funds for the EOP Rent Assistance program.
No one should be homeless. Everyone needs a safe, stable place to call home.

7. Systems Alignment Employment System Housing System
Workforce Development
Job skills training, job search supportive services
Business and industry relationships
Federal, State, County, City, grants and donations
Department of Labor
Housing Stability
Housing, rent assistance, supportive services
Property management & community relationships
Federal, State, County, City, grants and donations
Housing and Urban Dev.
These are distinct, each with its own terminology and service approach, data collection, reporting, and evaluation systems.
Though both systems are funded primarily by local and Federal governments, funds flow from different departments within those entities and the missions of these departments are reflected throughout the systems.
The Department of labor is concerned with wages, working conditions, and work related benefits and rights.
Housing and Urban Development is concerned with the health of communities, with housing affordability, habitability and availability, to build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.
The collaboration has woven together funding from these two sources: Home Forward uses Moving to Work, HUD money, to fund the Rent Assistance, Worksystems uses Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act funds from the Dept of Labor to pay for the Rent Assistance Coordinator, and uses CDBG, HUD money, to fund the Economic Opportunity Program.
Though they are distinct, these systems often serve the same populations and with the escalating cost of housing it is even more important that we find new ways to support people with low incomes. Bringing these two systems together to give people seeking to increase their incomes the housing support they need to realize their career goals makes a lot of sense.

8. Housing and Employment Alignment in Portland, Oregon
Rent Assistance for the Economic Opportunity Program
Both serve low-income
Housing agencies have employment services
Housing Programs recognize impact of income on housing stability
Employment services recognize impact of housing instability on career goals
In Multnomah County, Housing and Employment systems intersect where many housing agencies partner with Worksystems to provide employment services and there has been a greater focus on moving people accessing housing services into employment in recent years. But, a collaboration such as the one we are talking about today, is new.

9. Economic Opportunity Program
Supports Career Track Employment
Participants must be at or below 50% Area Median Income
Participants work on their Career Plan Goals with a Career Coach at one of 7 local non-profits
Over the last 3 years, EOP has served more than 1400 people (400 active at any given time)
~ 70% exit program with employment
The collaborative project is concerned with providing housing support for people in the Economic Opportunity Program.
Career Coaches provide intensive support, motivation, guidance, and funds to help remove barriers such as costs of childcare, transportation, and work clothing.
Participants have up to two years to obtain employment. After finding employment, they may remain in the program for another year of Retention and Advancement to support them in maintaining employment or advancing in their careers.

10. Why Rent Assistance for EOP Participants?
Career Coaches found that EOP participants experiencing housing instability were often not able to complete training or job search
Worksystems and Home Forward realized that in order to maximize outcomes for low-income area residents, systems needed improved alignment
Human Solutions was contracted to coordinate rent assistance and assist homeless participants to find housing
Career Coaches and program managers found the EOP participants experiencing housing instability were often not able to complete training or job search.
Housing is crucial to accomplishing many of our day to day activities. It is extremely difficult to focus on the steps you need to take to get any job, much less one that is going to provide a living wage if you are worried about your housing. If you are homeless, meeting your basic needs like eating, sleeping, and bathing consume most of your time, energy, and focus.
Due to their experience working together on the Housing Works project, Worksystems and Home Forward approached the problem together. Home Forward set aside short term rent assistance money to be used specifically to stabilize housing for participants engaged in employment services in the EOP program.
Because of Human Solutions years of experience providing rent assistance and track record with both Home Forward and Worksystems, the agency was brought in to manage the rent assistance funds.

11. Rent Assistance for the Economic Opportunity Program
Participants engaged in EOP who are at risk of homelessness or homeless
Assistance may be used for Deposits, Application fees, Rental Debt, Arrears, late fees, monthly rent, utility bills
Length of assistance is based on need, but averages 5 months
Participants generally pay 30% of adjusted income toward rent
People who are engaged in EOP and are at risk or are homeless are eligible.
Assistance is fairly flexible as long as it is used to remove a housing related barrier. The assistance could be up to 12 months, but this would hugely impact the number of people who receive the assistance and most recipients do not need the assistance for more than three months. The average number of months provided in the last program year was 5.
Having participants contribute toward rent with 30% of their income also stretches the available fund, making it possible to serve more. However, it is not a requirement.

12. Rent Assistance Flow
Career Coach (CC) refers
Participant to Rent Assistance Coordinator (RAC)
RAC, CC, & Participant meet to develop housing plan that coincides with the Career Plan
If homeless, RAC helps Participant search for housing. Once Housed, RAC begins making payments
Rent Assistance ends when Participant
Housing is stabilized
Career-Track Employment and Housing Stability
When an engaged EOP participant discloses that their housing is at risk or that they are homeless, their Career Coach sends a referral to the Rent Assistance Coordinator at Human Solutions. The RAC schedules an appointment with the Participant and Career Coach. Having the Career Coach present at this meeting is very important. It helps to put the Participant at ease to have someone they know and trust present. Together they can make sure that the housing plan aligns with the career plan. Everybody involved understands expectations and process, so there is less confusion. It aligns with best practices like Trauma Informed Care.
If the Participant is housed, then rent payments can begin within a week or two. If the participant is homeless then the RAC assists them with the housing search process, addressing barriers, contacting landlords, and so forth.
The best outcome is for the Participant’s housing to become stable and for them to become employed or increase their wages. Ideally, rent assistance ends when the Participant’s housing is stable.

13. EOP Rent Assistance Goals
Career Track Employment
Serve 35 participants
70% of participants engaged in training will complete training
70% of participants will successfully complete EOP
Housing Stability
90% of households will remain housed during assistance & 3 months after assistance ends
80% will remain housed 6 months after assistance ends
70% will remain housed 12 months after rent assistance ends
Career Track employment goals are that 35 participants will be served, 70% of participants engaged in training will complete training and 70% of participants will successfully complete the Economic Opportunity Program
Housing Stability goals are that 90% of households will remain housed during the period of assistance and 90% will be housed 3 months after assistance ends; that 80% will remain housed 6 months after assistance ends and 70% will remain housed at 12 months after rent assistance ends.

14. Outputs 35 EOP participants received Rent Assistance
7 were homeless at referral
28 were at-risk of homelessness
5 months avg. length of rent assistance
$561 avg. monthly
1.5 months avg. length of time in housing search
The collaboration met the goal of serving 35 participants with rent assistance.
7 of whom were homeless at referral. 28 were at risk of homelessness at referral.
The average length of assistance was 5 months
Average monthly rent assistance - $561
For those who found housing, the average length of time in housing search was 1.5 months.

15. Outcomes as of June 30, 2016 Employment Housing
63% of recipients employed
66% engaged in job search
69% of those in training completed training & 23% continued training
11% completed career goals
83% working on goals
6% exited w/o completing goals
97% of recipients remained housed throughout RA
76% of recipients were housed at 3 months
6 month – not enough data
12 month data n/a
If the trend continues, we can expect to meet the goal of 70% successfully completing career goals, and will likely meet the goal of 70% becoming employed.
Some of the recipients were searching for career track jobs while employed. But since EOP participants may be in the program up to 2 years, we won’t know the outcome for either program goal for up to 18 months at which time all of the recipients should be exited from EOP.
69% of those who were in training programs completed training and 23% were still in training as of June 30.
We have data on housing incomes for 3 months and 6 months. We were able to verify housing for 13 of the 17 who have been exited for 3 months. All 13 were housed. I will talk a little more about the housing outcomes when we get to the challenges slide. Only 3 recipients have been exited from rent assistance for 6 months so data is not significant, though 2 out of the 3 are currently housed. No recipients have been exited from rent assistance for as long as 12 months.

16. Completed Career Goals
Impact of Assistance
Recipients (35)
Unmet Needs (38)
63% %
Employed
66% %
Job Search
69%* %*
Training Completed
When all the funds were obligated, an unmet needs list was created to capture comparative data.
This list of 38 EOP participants provided us with an opportunity to begin measuring the impact of assistance.
You can see that receiving rent assistance clearly had a positive impact on recipients’ progress toward their goals, in staying engaged in job search and completing training. Overall, those who received rent assistance through this pilot project were more than five times as likely to complete occupational training and 70% more likely to enter employment than those who were homeless or facing imminent eviction but did not receive rent assistance.
The 69% of recipients who completed training is a percentage of those who were in training programs during the rent assistance period. In the case of unmet needs, the 30% who completed training is a percentage of those who were in training between the time they were referred to the unmet needs list and the end of the program year, June 30.
11% %
Completed Career Goals

17. Impact of Assistance Recipients Unmet Needs Continued Training 23% 70%
23% %
Continued Training
20% received Rent Assistance from another source and 40% paid for their housing with student loans, while an additional 1% lived in temporary housing
Sometimes data can really throw you. On the surface, it looks like a significant number of people were able to continue with their training programs even while at risk of homelessness or actually homeless.
But when we dug deeper, we found that of the 70% of those who continued in their training programs among those with unmet needs, 20% received rent assistance from another source, 40% paid for their housing with student loans and 1% lived in temporary housing.
Remember that 69% of those rent assistance recipients who were in training did complete the training.

18. Systems Alignment Challenges
Establishing & maintaining communication
7 months to obligate 12 months of assistance
Engagement, what does it look like?
How long should assistance last?
What are the respective roles of Career Coaches & Rent Assistance Coordinators?
How do we make sure to meet equity goals?
Data collection & reporting
Participant challenges & barriers
Housing crisis
Challenges the collaboration has encountered include the nature of funding, the larger economic environment, and differing perspectives about how to provide services in the best interests of the people we are serving.
Members of the panel will speak in more depth about these challenges.
We had 7 months to obligate 12 months of rent assistance as the program kicked off in October and funds had to be obligated by the end of April due to Home Forward’s fiscal year. This may have resulted in the program serving more eviction prevention as opposed to homeless participants.
How long should the assistance last?
How do we define engaged?
Roles -- Who should provide housing support during RA period? Provide connection to resources?
What data do we need? Which system should track it? How can we make the data easier to access for analyzing and reporting?
Participants don’t always approach their goals the way we might. They may see getting a living wage job as their first step toward income and housing stability even if they are homeless. In housing we believe that people need housing first before they can effectively work on things like employment, substance abuse, debt, and so forth. We also know that recovery is a process and may involve cycles of relapse and recovery. People with a history of substance abuse may relapse when things look like they are going very well.
We are short of our housing goal of 90% housed at 3 months. One of the soft spots in this program is that not enough capacity has been built in for supportive services – for the Rent Assistance Coordinators or Career Coaches to focus on supporting participants through issues which can sabotage their housing. This is definitely an area we need to address.
The housing crisis is being felt statewide and is another major challenge. Multnomah County, and Portland in particular is experiencing a severe housing crisis. The numbers of homeless people are difficult to estimate, but homelessness has never been so visible in my life time. Property owners are increasing rents at staggering rates and people are losing their housing who never thought it was possible. It is not surprising that 50% of those who were homeless at referral to the EOP RA program did not find housing before funds were completely obligated and no longer available.

19. Sustainability Service Alignment, intersection, integration
Home Forward rent assistance contract Renewed
Service Alignment, intersection, integration
Portland Housing Bureau rent assistance Contract
Good Outcomes
Service alignment, intersection and integration are continuing efforts. Finding where the systems intersect – common service areas, integrating direct services staff roles to provide services that are seamless and productive for participants, and devising processes which align the systems in an optimally functional way. Focusing attention to these areas and building on the strengths of each organization led to positive outcomes.
By June, data suggested that the program was showing encouraging results for EOP participants in comparison to those on the unmet needs list. In June, this data was presented to A Home For Everyone’s Employment Workgroup.
A Home for Everyone subsequently allocated funds provided by the Portland Housing Bureau to expand the rent assistance program. These funds will serve primarily homeless adults without minor children. Home Forward has committed funds for the current year, as well.
A Home for Everyone has secured additional funding for the rent assistance program which will allow the Community Works Consortium to refer their participants for rent assistance. Community Works provides employment services for people receiving public benefits.
Community Works Consortium rent assistance

20. WORKGROUP SESSION What might you do to address these challenges?
What are the unmet needs?
What organizations do you have strong relationships with or who do you want to partner with?
Do they have funding streams different from your own?
What expertise will they bring to a collaboration?
What might you do to address these challenges?
What expertise will your organization bring?
What two challenges come to mind?
We would like you to think about what systems and organizations exist in your community. Who have you worked with in the past? Who attends the same meetings? Are you serving the same demographic? Consider what those organizations have experience providing and where the needs of your participants intersect with that. And what is your organization really good at, what can you bring to a collaborative project?
What two challenges come to mind when you think about collaborating with one or more of these organizations?
What might you do to address these challenges?