500 in 5 campaign (housing development)

By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on 500 in 5 campaign (housing development)

Vecino Group (developer)
Corporation for Supportive Housing (research)
Various landlords in the community
different non-profits depending on project population served and location

Funding:
Missouri Department of Mental Health
HUD

TMCBH’s homeless outreach services needed access to housing units to stabilize behavioral health clients that often have multiple health care needs & were rotating through the ER routinely. We renegotiated a state contract that had unused funds and secured a partnership with a supportive housing developer. A local university did a brief market analysis to help determine number of units that could have significant impact in our community. We determined to launch a 5 year campaign to develop 500 units of housing in the metro area and measure the impact on healthcare and treatment.

The hospital has not allocated any resources; Medicaid pays for support services for most tenants we serve; HUD pays for non-Medicaid reimbursed support services for those pending Medicaid & chronically homeless individuals; HUD dollars or Mo. DMH monies are used to pay rental assistance. Private foundation dollars are sometimes used to fill gaps. We have targeted chronic homeless individuals that frequent the ER and transition-aged youth at risk of homelessness in year one.

BH partners with organizations on a project by project basis. For example, when targeting transitioned age youth with mental illness, we partnered with a local private university who had vacant dorm space, a local youth service provider and created 4 units of supportive housing that also enrolled the youth in college (with private foundation monies). For chronically homeless individuals, we befriended/secured a local landlord & master leased 20 units with HUD and State dollars. TMCBH agreed to provide on-site staffing for 40 hours per week and keep the units filled so there are no vacancies longer than 30 days. Collaborations are specific to the population being housed.

We launched the campaign in October 2017 and have already secured 25 units and an additional 45 are under development (first 6 months). CSH produced an initial report demonstrating a 68% reduction in ER visits for 22 clients in the first 6 months of housing. Research will be collected every 6 months of housing stability to evaluate impact.