TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section I: Program Description 3
A. Overview 3
B. Philosophy 3
C. Vision 4
D. Mission 5
E. Goals 5
F. Agency Partners 5
Section II: Program Services 6
A. Eligibility 6
B. Admission Policies 7
C. Admission Procedures 8
D. Re-Entry Policies & Procedures 9
Section III: General Rules and Regulations 10
A. Program Agreement 10
B. Family Budgets/Fiscal Planning 10
C. Grievances/Appeals 10
D. Program Termination 10
Section IV: CSB Administered Direct Client Assistance 11
A. Eligible Expenses 11
B. Long-Term FHC Process 12
C. Agency Reimbursements ______12
Section V: Supportive Services 14
A. Priorities 14
B. Service Levels & Coordination 14
C. Service Activities 15
Section VI: Administrative Functions 17
A. Agencies’ Roles & Responsibilities 17
B Quality Assurance______19
Section VII: Attachments ______20
SECTION I: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
A. Overview
The Community Shelter Board developed the Family Housing Collaborative, a joint effort with partner agencies and the community to provide homeless families the opportunity to resolve their housing crisis through the efficient use of a pool of available community resources. The purpose of the Family Housing Collaborative is to assist families staying at the YWCA Family Center (FC) to quickly obtain permanent housing and to provide them short-term or long-term supportive services, depending on their needs, and accessing linkages to community services, until they attain housing stability.
The Family Housing Collaborative combined with the full support of the Community Shelter Board, its partner agencies, and the community, will serve homeless families who have obstacles that prevent their obtaining housing. Services provided may include financial assistance, budget counseling, landlord advocacy, and linkages to community agencies that will provide services sufficient to enable the family to obtain and maintain permanent housing. Service will be provided in a manner that enhances the family’s stability, respects the family’s uniqueness, and enables the family to establish and maintain a permanent home.
B. Philosophy
The Family Housing Collaborative is one component of the Community Shelter Board’s Housing First approach to ending homelessness.
A Housing First approach rests on two central premises:
· Re-housing should be the central goal of our work with people experiencing homelessness, and
· By providing housing assistance and follow-up case management services after a family is housed, we can significantly reduce the time people spend in homelessness. Aftercare may not always be needed, but can be normally expected in the majority of cases.
A Housing First approach consists of three components:
· Crisis intervention, emergency services, screening and needs assessment:
Families who have become homeless have immediate, crisis needs that need to be accommodated, including the provision of emergency shelter. There should be an early screening of the challenges and resources that will affect a re-housing plan.
· Permanent housing services: The provision of services to help families' access and sustain housing includes working with the client to identify affordable units, access housing subsidies, and negotiate leases. Clients may require assistance to overcome barriers, such as poor tenant history, credit history and discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, family make-up and income source. Providers need a roster of landlords willing to work with the program and engage in strategies to reduce disincentives to participate.
· Case management services: The provision of case management occurs (1) to ensure families have a source of income through employment and/or public benefits, and to identify service needs before the move into permanent housing; and (2) to work with families after the move into permanent housing to help solve problems that may arise that threaten the clients' tenancy including difficulties sustaining housing or interacting with the landlord and to connect families with community-based services to meet long term support/service needs.
Assistance provided as part of the Family Housing Collaborative is provided in an efficient and cost-effective manner and is guided by the following values:
Ø Housing is a basic human need.
Ø Shelters are not an adequate response to homelessness.
Ø Housing should be safe, decent, and affordable.
Ø Families are better off in a “home-like” environment rather than institutional setting.
Ø Meeting basic needs is essential in order to address psychosocial, emotional and/or parenting issues.
Ø Most families are able or can learn to set their own goals, manage their own homes, and take charge of their lives.
Ø Personal responsibility for self and community is encouraged and the ability to make choices is respected.
Ø Mistakes are part of the learning process.
Ø Families should have input in the selection of housing.
Ø Most homeless parents want to keep their children and, with support, are capable of adequate parenting.
Ø Families should remain together if at all possible when it is in the best interest of the child(ren).
Ø In order to support a child, it is necessary to support the child’s parent(s) or long-term caregiver(s).
Ø Chemical addiction requires recovery, but the method of recovery that is most effective varies among individuals.
Ø Individuals are more likely to maintain recovery if they have housing that promotes clean and sober living.
Ø Recovery is a life-long process.
Ø Support and recovery services should start with an individual’s/family’s strengths.
Ø Healthy families create healthy communities, and healthy communities support healthy families.
C. Vision
The Family Housing Collaborative is guided by the Community Shelter Board Governance Policies as adopted by the Board of Trustees.
Global Ends Policy: Homeless people and people in imminent threat of homelessness in Franklin County will have the opportunity to resolve their housing crisis through the collaborative development of an efficient use of a pool of available community resources, as part of a long-term strategy to end homelessness.
D. Mission
Through shared power, goals and resources, the Family Housing Collaborative works to quickly move homeless families into sustainable permanent housing.
E. Goals
The Family Housing Collaborative will provide services to families in a collaborative manner to ensure:
Ø Have their basic needs met in a non-congregate environment (individual, SRO or shared unit);
Ø Move to positive, stable housing;
Ø Have access to resources and services as needed to maintain housing; and
Ø Not re-enter the emergency shelter system.
F. Agency Partners
Ø The Community Shelter Board administers the Family Housing Collaborative (FHC), coordinating services between the other agency partners, providing Direct Client Assistance, and acting as intermediary between the agencies and funders. The Program Manager of Direct Client Assistance reviews check requests to ensure completeness, accuracy, and consistency with FHC policies and procedures and assures checks processed through CSB accounts are payable per FHC & CSB policies and procedures. The Assistant Director of Programs and Planning facilitates FHC meetings, compiles needed statistical data, provides quarterly monitoring reports, and ensures compliance with funder requirements and CSB policies and procedures.
Ø The YWCA Family Center (YWCA-FC)) is the referral agency for the short-term and long-term FHC programs. As the front-door shelter for families in the Columbus area, the Family Housing Advocates and the Director of Housing Advocacy at the YWCA-FC screens households for appropriate housing referrals, assists in obtaining background information and documents, promotes and explains the Family Housing Collaborative, refers appropriate families to the FHC, and works closely with FHC Case Managers while families remain at the YWCA-FC shelter.
Ø The Salvation Army provides case management services for the short-term FHC Program. The Director of Housing reviews and accepts families appropriate for the program, notifying those accepted and denied, and assigns new cases to Case Managers and provides case supervision. The Case Managers assist the family to find suitable permanent housing, obtain needed financial and material resources, and provide community linkages to services needed to enable maintenance of the home and stabilize the family within 2 - four months from intake.
Ø The Homeless Families Foundation provides case management services for the long-term FHC Program. The Program Director and/or FHC Case Managers reviews and accepts families appropriate for the program, notifying those accepted and denied, and assigns new cases to the program’s Case Managers and provides case supervision. The Case Managers assist the family to find suitable permanent housing, obtain needed financial and material resources, and provide community linkages to services needed to enable maintenance of the home and stabilize the family within 6-12 months of move-in.
Section II: Program services
A. Eligibility
The Family Housing Collaborative serves families[1] that are homeless. Families eligible for FHC are provided either short-term or long-term assistance based on an assessment of their needs.
Families served by the FHC will have one or more barriers to obtaining permanent housing, have other identified need for supportive services, and are earning or receiving or are capable of earning income adequate to maintain permanent housing at the conclusion of program services. Homeless families may participate in the Family Housing Collaborative if they have barriers to stability that can be addressed in a community-based setting once they are housed. Those who cannot reasonably be expected to achieve stability within the timeframe of FHC services should be referred to other, more appropriate supportive housing (transitional, permanent, or treatment)
FHC Short-Term Criteria
The short-term Family Housing Collaborative program will serve homeless families who can be expected to achieve stability within 90 days and:
· are clients of the YWCA-FC;
· desire an independent, stable home;
· are willing to partner with a Family Housing Collaborative Case Manager for the time that is required to attain and establish maintenance of their housing;
· have or have shown evidence of being capable of gaining income sufficient to maintain housing within 30 days based on past work experience or expressed or demonstrated commitment;
· are unable to obtain and maintain an apartment without assistance due to barriers primarily related to income, employment, debt, criminal history, and/or previous evictions;
· have not been exited from short-term FHC-assisted permanent housing within the past 12 months. (See Section II, Part D. Re-entry Policies & Procedures for more information.)
FHC Long-Term Criteria
The long-term Family Housing Collaborative program will serve homeless families who can be expected to achieve stability within 6-12 months and:
· are clients of the YWCA-FC.
· desire an independent, stable home;
· are willing to partner with a Family Housing Collaborative Case Manager for the time that is required to attain and establish maintenance of their housing;
· have limited or no income or benefits and insufficient community-based supports to be independent and stable;
· have willingness to obtain a sufficient income within 90 days;
· have or have shown evidence of being capable of gaining income sufficient to maintain housing within 3-6 months based on past work experience or expressed commitment;
· have or can have income or community based supports sufficient to maintain housing within 12 months;
· have a demonstrated history of housing instability;
· are unable to obtain and maintain an apartment without assistance due to significant barriers primarily related to income, employment, debt, criminal history, and/or previous evictions;
· have not been exited from long-term FHC-assisted permanent housing within the past 12 months. (See Section II, Part D. Re-entry Policies & Procedures for more information.)
B. Admissions Policies
1) Program Participation: Families must be willing to partner with a Family Housing Collaborative Case Manager for the time that is required to attain and establish maintenance of their housing. Families must actively seek housing with guidance from their FHC Case Manager, considering both family needs and capabilities. Families must actively seek employment or other legitimate means of increasing income. Families must be willing to actively participate in programs designed to educate or rehabilitate as recommended by qualified counselors.
2) REASONABLE HOUSING COSTS: Expenses for rent and utilities must be reasonably based on the family’s projected ability to sustain payment for the rent and utilities in the future, generally no more than 50 percent of the family monthly income. Families will not be assisted to move into housing that they cannot reasonably be expected to maintain/afford for the twelve months following exit from FHC.
3) past arrearages or non-payment of rent/utilities: Families who have previous eviction or financial assessments due to damages will be considered. Excessive records need to be handled on a case-by-case basis depending on the circumstances. When possible, the Family Housing Collaborative will assist families in negotiating a re-payment plan. Families must be willing to cooperate with the FHC to address these issues.
4) OPEN CHILDREN’S SERVICES CASES: Families who have “open cases” with FCCS must agree to work jointly with an FCCS Case Manager and the Family Housing Collaborative Case Manager. The FHC Case Manager will assure that all applicable FCCS financial resources are used as the first resource to meet the family’s needs.
5) Police Records: Families may have police records. However, families with arson records may not be eligible unless the family has identified a landlord willing to rent to them before acceptance into the program. All other convictions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Families must show explanations and compliance with probation, parole, and/or treatment for any convictions.
6) FAMILY FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Families should be prepared and expect to pay a portion of their move-in expenses, with either household resources or leveraged community resources.
7) Suspected alcohol or Drug Use: If the FHC Case Manager is concerned about current alcohol or drug use, or if any adult family member has a diagnosed substance abuse disorder, he or she must be willing to be referred to a qualified Alcohol or Other Drug (AOD) provider for an assessment and treatment if recommended.
8) mental health: If the FHC Case Manager is concerned about mental health issues, or if any adult family member has a diagnosed mental health condition, he or she must be willing to be referred to a qualified mental health provider for an assessment and treatment if recommended.
9) Utilities: Families must be able to obtain and maintain utilities in the name of the Head of Household or other contributing adult residing with the family. If money is owed to utility companies preventing service turn-on,
Ø families can make a special payment arrangement with the utility company; or