affordable housing

updates

Housing First (continued)

Our initiative strategy will be comprehensive and comprised of two overarching strategies:

• Supporting infrastructure development among agencies working with homeless families
• A public and political will campaign to promote the adoption of the Housing First philosophy across the state

Infrastructure support to agencies working with homeless families: This spring, UWMB issued a Request for Proposals that seeks to provide community-based agencies with the financial and technical support they need to convert programming to a Housing First philosophy. This could include shelter providers as well as those agencies providing support services and housing search and placement. Activities UWMB will prioritize for funding include technology enhancements, outreach to the landlord and/or affordable housing development community, development of case management capacity, and the creation of partnerships with sustainable employment providers. UWMB will work closely with the State Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) throughout the implementation of this initiative to ensure that our grantmaking aligns with DTA’s new Housing First perspective guidelines for family shelter services.

Public and political will campaign: In 2006, UWMB participated in the development of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Plan to End Family Homelessness. This work was a collaboration of the Policy Academy, a group comprised of area representatives from private charities and foundations, the medical community, state executive offices and departments, and the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness. The plan includes five key priorities needed to fulfill the vision of ending family homelessness in the Commonwealth within ten years. UWMB has primary oversight of Priority Five, “to develop and sustain strong leadership to end family homelessness,” and will employ the following strategies to assure success:

Strategy 5.1: Identify and engage stakeholders that support the Policy Academy’s objectives, e.g., the legislature, courts, private philanthropy, advocates, providers, consumer organizations, academia and business.

Strategy 5.2: Support agency heads and other representatives of the administration in the implementation of the plan.

Strategy 5.3: Approach the legislature to encourage flexible funding tied to reduced reliance on shelter for services and housing for the homeless, including programs that fund public and private non-profit agencies.

Strategy 5.4: Encourage local and regional adaptation of the Policy Academy’s plan by local and regional elected officials.

Strategy 5.4: Promote awareness of and provide assistance for the use of existing resources, including state housing statutes Chapter 40R, 40B and 40S.

Through our work with this initiative, UWMB hopes to achieve the following outcomes:

• Increase capacity of shelter providers and other homeless services agencies within the UWMB footprint to operate under a Housing First philosophy
• Decrease the time spent in shelters for homeless families who participate in UWMB-funded Housing First programs
• Increase support from a variety of stakeholders throughout the Commonwealth for a wide-scale adoption of the Housing First approach of service delivery
• Legislative or budgetary changes that support a move away from the current sheltering system to a system that reflects a Housing First framework.

To download the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Plan to End Family Homelessness or read more about the Housing First philosophy of service delivery, please click on the following link: http://www.uwmb.org/ourwork/housing-first.html