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Photo: Michael Rosenberg |
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More than 350 cities and counties have recently adopted plans to end chronic homelessness within 10 years, generating new momentum for efforts to provide housing for all Americans.
Most of the plans to end homelessness promote supportive housing as a strategy, and make new commitments to fund and coordinate services linked to housing for people with special needs.
Enterprise works closely with its colleagues, like the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the National Alliance to End Homelessness to create solutions and best practices for supportive housing finance, operations and preservation.
- . Approximately 80 percent of homeless people with disabilities who are given the opportunity to move into supportive housing stay for a year or more, and many who leave progress to independent settings.
- . A landmark 1999 study of 5,000 homeless people with mental illness was the first to show that supportive housing saves taxpayers money -- approximately $16,000 a year per person in the use of public health services, hospitals, shelters and jails. More recent studies suggest similar findings.
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With the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Enterprise commissioned a review of existing research on family homelessness. (PDF, 235K) Conducted by leading homelessness expert Dr. Marybeth Shinn, the brief affirms that family homelessness is primarily an economic and housing affordability issue. News release. (PDF, 188K, July 27, 2009)
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With low income housing tax credit financing from Enterprise, Downtown Emergency Service Center’s 1811 Eastlake Housing First property in Seattle, WA houses 75 formerly homeless men and women with chronic alcohol addiction. Per a study published in JAMA in 2009 (PDF, 187K), in the first year of operation alone, because these residents are now off the streets and out of emergency rooms and in a safe, steady and supportive living environment.
Vista Nueva Apartments is an award-winning development by A Community of Friends in Los Angeles that helps adult residents with mental illness focus on rehabilitation, self sufficiency and parenting, and provides additional supports for children.
Living on the streets is a dead-end road. Real opportunity begins with a decent place to call home, through Cuyahoga County's Housing First collaborative. Our audio slide show shares six stories of personal triumph.
Good property management is key to preserving our existing supportive housing stock. Enterprise partnered with REDF and The Corporation for Supportive Housing to sponsor a survey of the best supportive housing property managers in the country, to identify the key factors of their business success.
Resident services in affordable rental housing connect residents to available, quality services and benefits to help them maintain stability, advance their job skills, obtain better jobs and become financially independent. In addition, after-school programs provide safe havens and educational support to help children succeed and stay in school. Without this housing-based support, it is daunting – and sometimes impossible – for parents working long hours in low-wage jobs to navigate the complex social services system of public and private agencies.
The National Resident Services Collaborative was established by several national, regional and local community development organizations to improve and increase the delivery of resident services for families in affordable housing.
Housing Credit Policies in 2007 that Promote Supportive Housing (PDF, 828K) The Supportive Housing Investment Partnership has updated its compressive look at the innovative policies states have adopted to foster and encourage supportive housing development within qualified allocation plans for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, analyzing each of the 50 states’ 2007 Housing Credit allocation plans.
See also the 2005 report, "Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing: An Analysis of 2005 State Policies" and other supportive housing publications.
For more on supportive housing issues, fundamentals, development and services strategies and models; funding; policy advocacy; and to find additional links to expertise and guidance:
- Enterprise has financed nearly 30,000 units supportive housing units with investments of over $1.7 billion.
- We have pioneered the financing of supportive housing through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit in 1991, overturning the conventional wisdom that investors would not embrace these projects.
- We also partnered with Fannie Mae on a $100 million fund to help increase the supply of permanent supportive housing nationally.
Melinda Pollack
Leader, Vulnerable Populations
303.376.5405
Email Melinda
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