“Having nice affordable permanent housing helps you do so much more.” – HousingPlus tenant
The HousingPlus mission is to provide community-based housing and comprehensive services, especially for women and families, to support them so that they can build lives of stability and realize their goals.
To move people from homelessness to housing, we use an approach called Housing First. Housing First works from the premise that for additional support and interventions to be successful, a person first needs the stability of a home.
At HousingPlus, we are proud early adopters of this method of housing assistance, and it has been an unwavering part of our method of housing women and families.
While we practice Housing First, we also provide structured programming. We actively engage tenants to set their own goals while working alongside our team if they choose. The priority is to get a person stably housed and work from that point forward on issues related to mental and physical health, addiction, or other factors impacting the tenants’ lives. Note! We refer to people we support as tenants because they pay a set portion of their monthly income as rent – so it really is a landlord-tenant relationship.
Housing First leads to housing stability. We ensure continuing housing stability by providing our supportive services to tenants alongside a place to live.
Housing First can be provided either through permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing. The distinction is that permanent supportive housing is best for people who have experienced chronic homelessness or have a serious disability, while rapid re-housing can be the best solution for a wider range of individuals, such as individuals who were previously incarcerated. We practice both models of Housing-First programming at HousingPlus.
Housing First is not just paying for itself, but paying communities back
Regardless of the model, in 2021, a review of several studies of Housing-First projects found that for every dollar spent on the initiatives, communities saw close to two dollars ($2) in benefits. (Link to Research)
The benefits do not end there. Research shows that the Housing First model produced very positive results for the residents it impacted, including:
- Improved mental health and quality of life assessment results (Links to Research Here and Here)
- Reduced chance of a person reentering the homeless support system (Link to Research)
- Reduced utilization of costly emergency services (Link to Research)
- Reduced rate of reoffending among populations who had previous justice system interaction and a history of mental illness (Link to Research)
- High rate of long-term housing retention (for permanent supportive housing) (Link to Research)
Housing First and self-worth
At HousingPlus what we see day-to-day reinforces these quantifiable benefits of Housing First and perhaps more importantly, shows the power of a home to increase a person’s sense of self-worth and overall outlook.
The words of our tenants reflect how just the presence of a private room of one’s own has an immediate and profound impact.
Below are direct quotes from tenants and residents we have interviewed over our 23-year existence as a proud practitioner of the Housing First model. The majority of these tenants experienced homelessness before finding HousingPlus.
- “When you have your own place, your own kitchen, and your own room, it is a blessing.”
- “It’s about being able to help yourself.”
- “We have a roof over our heads. The biggest thing is being secure and safe.”
- “I have my keys in my pocket and I can open my own house door, and it’s my own space.”
- “I feel like a human being, I feel like a part of society.”
- “Having a nice affordable permanent housing just really helps you do so much more.”
The reflections of these women show that with stable housing they view themselves as able to continue, to keep going, and to build a life with dignity and fulfillment. This makes all the difference to us at HousingPlus.
“The biggest thing is being secure.”
At HousingPlus, we focus on working to bring new apartments to market because we know the existence of a home is practically a requirement to ensure the people we serve can relieve the other issues either predating, caused by, or exacerbated by their experiences of homelessness.
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