Permanent Supportive Housing

Speakers:

Corporation for Supportive Housing – Kelly Kent

National Coalition for Homeless Veterans – Melanie Lilliston

Melanie Lilliston, NCHV

-  Welcome

-    Introduction of Kelly Kent

-  PowerPoint presentation posted on www.nchv.org

-    Question and Answer session will follow presentation

-    Questions not addressed during call may be sent to nchv5@nchv.org or 
202-546-1969

Kelly Kent, CSH
      - Description of CSH Products and Services

-    CHS provides project initiation loans; loans for acquisition; zero-percent interest loans

-    Capacity building for providers of services and housing

-    Work at local, state, and federal level to advocate for increased resources for homeless service providers

-    Offices in 13 different locations

Supportive Housing

-    CSH definition of supportive housing: Supportive housing is a successful, cost-effective combination of affordable housing with services that helps people live more stable, productive lives.

-    Supportive housing is for people who tend to be chronically homeless

-    Seeing more overlap of re-entry population and veteran population

-     “But for housing” principle: Without housing, individuals cannot access and make effective use of treatment and supportive services

-    Housing is permanent, affordable, independent (individuals at 30 percent and below median income level)

-    Services are flexible, voluntary, and independent

-    Research has found that voluntary participants are more invested and have better results/outcomes

Demographics of Homeless Veteran population

-    154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night (VA CHALENG Report 2007)

-    Veterans account for nearly 1/3 of men who are homeless

-    Statistics from PowerPoint presentation

-    Historically, veteran programs have been separated from traditional mainstream homelessness programs

-    VA offers great deal regarding background and knowledge

-    Homeless veteran service providers have a lot to offer VA system

-    “Veterans Lens” and “Homeless Services and Housing Lens”

-    Where are there points of intersection? What can we learn from each other?

Types of Supportive Housing

-    No one “right” model, depends on local community, real estate and rental markets

-    Buildings developed/rehabilitated as special needs housing, single site with multiple units

-    Apartments in private market, master-leased buildings or units

-    Mixed income buildings: units set aside for people who qualify for low-income housing tax credit units

-    Single family homes, scattered-site model

-    Traditional development: creates permanent asset to the community; takes longest amount of time to develop new building; involves establishing ongoing funding resources; working with local city government; development of PSH serves as “anchor” for revitalization of neighborhood

-    Alternatives to Direct Development

-    Master Leasing

-    Scattered-site

-    Turn-key: more experienced developer develops property for you and then turns over property to organization to operate and manage building; ownership is turned over to organization

-    Accessing existing housing: integrates residents into community; process moves more quickly once organization has secured rental subsidy; access to public transportation for tenants must be considered; involves establishing ongoing funding sources

-    Scattered site example

-    Using existing apartments in community

-    If provider does not want to do property management, organization can sublet apartments to tenants

-    Challenges: availability; fair market rents often below what landlords are asking; clients can be screened out due to criminal records, poor references, discrimination on part of landlord; poor housing quality  

-    Development can be overwhelming and take a long time; experienced development partners can be difficult to find; capital financing is not always readily available

Veteran-Specific Funding Sources

-    HUD-VASH: established in 1992; $75 million (10,000 vouchers) 2008; modeled after Section 8 housing voucher mixed with case management services from VA

-    VA Supported Housing Program

Case Studies of PSH for Homeless Veterans

-    Veterans Academy at the Presidio: 100 unit SRO units; donated land; services covered by HUD McKinney Vento SHP

-    Volunteers of America – Florida: 25 scattered site units; VA clinic refers tenants to this project and provides services to veterans once they are housed

-    Manteno Housing Program for Disabled Vets: created by Illinois VA; 14 units; locate on state land; funding from Illinois Housing Development Authority Trust Fund, HUD McKinney SHP, and Federal Home Loan Bank; example of how states can use existing resources to create new housing opportunities in residential setting

Question and Answer Session

Q: How are vouchers distributed within an area? Why does one VA medical center receive more vouchers than another center?

Kent – I am not privy to this information. But the VA and HUD want to make sure that they allocate vouchers to areas in close proximity to VA medical centers. There are opportunities for organizations to reach out to local VA medical centers and housing authorities to make case for why you should receive more vouchers in upcoming rounds.

Q: So they’re using the Per Diem part of this for services on PSH?

Kent – Yes, the state VA was awarded SHP funding so that covers a large portion of the operating expenses. The Per Diem funding doesn’t cover all of the expenses. It’s a blending of the two. The SHP funding is covering a large amount of the housing and services.

Melanie – NCHV will be hosting an all-day housing institute at Annual Conference; will cover developing and financing PSH programs; Kelly Kent will be available for one-on-one consultations during conference. Annual Conference is taking place June 23-25 in Washington, D.C. and more information is on www.nchv.org.

Q: I would like to encourage everyone to look at legislative piece on using funding for veterans-only projects. Congressman Filner co-authored piece of legislation to make sure there was veterans-only housing on VA land. This is an issue we need to look at.

Kent – If non-veteran and veteran apply for unit, veteran has priority to receive that unit. However, there is the not ability for veterans-only housing on VA land due to fair housing laws. People are discussing ways to address that.

Q: Do you have examples of PSH programs in the Southern California/Los Angeles area?

Kent – Project in Long Beach by US VETS; Guidebook on Developing Permanent Supportive Housing for Homeless Veterans offers case studies; can put you in touch with CSH office in Los Angeles; CSH is working on updating new case studies and including them in upcoming publications.

Closing

Melanie Lilliston, NCHV

- Thank you

-    Questions not addressed during call may be sent to nchv5@nchv.org or 
202-546-1969

-  NCHV Annual Conference Housing Institute on Tuesday, June 24