Transcript The Potential of Supportive Housing NM LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

The Potential of Supportive Housing
NM LEGISLATIVE
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Marti Knisley
The Technical Assistance Collaborative
October 15, 2008
www.tacinc.org
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What is Supportive Housing
A cost-effective combination of
permanent, affordable housing with
services that helps people with
disabilities and persons with limited
incomes who have needs for
supportive services live more stable,
healthy productive lives
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What is Supportive Housing ?
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It is permanent, meaning each tenant may stay as long as he or
she pays rent and complies with terms of lease or rental agreement
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It is affordable, meaning each tenant pays no more than 30% to
50% of household income
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Tenants have access to an array of support services that are
intended to support housing stability, recovery and resiliency, but
participation in support services is not a requirement for tenancy
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Options are available for adults who are single, those who choose
to share housing, youth transitioning out of juvenile or protective
services and families with children
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“Housing First” & “low demand” models provide access for tenants
with long histories of homelessness, incarceration, foster care
institutionalization, residential treatment and significant obstacles to
housing stability often at much lower cost than they are being 3
served in traditional care
Supportive Housing is Cost Effective
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Medicaid, health and other human services systems incur substantial
costs providing care often with mixed success:
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Costs of serving homeless people with serious mental illness up to
$40,000 / year or more– mostly in health care systems
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$28,000 annual costs in Maine– mostly health care in hospitals
$28,000 average annual health costs for Boston street dwellers
Health care costs for public inebriates typically exceed $8,000/year
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$46,700 average Medicaid charges prior to supportive housing movein for chronic alcoholics in Seattle
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Supportive Housing is Cost Effective
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Supportive housing significantly reduces the need for costly
emergency care and hospitalizations:
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45% fewer days of nursing home care and 42%
fewer days inpatient hospitalization in Chicago
56% fewer emergency room visits and 44% fewer inpatient
admissions in San Francisco
77% fewer inpatient hospitalizations and 60% fewer
ambulance transports in Maine
34% fewer emergency room visits and 40% fewer inpatient
hospital days in Denver
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Health outcomes improve with better engagement in more
appropriate outpatient care
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However, cost offsets only work when persons getting the supportive
housing intervention have used or will use public services
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The NM Purchasing Collaborative’s
Approach to Supportive Housing
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The Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative is taking a very
proactive, sensible approach to supportive housing
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The Collaborative began this approach by developing a
Long Range Housing Plan in 2007 that began with an assessment of
need, an inventory of what housing and services resources exist and
a blueprint for: capacity building, new and use of available
development and rental resources and implementing best practice
service approaches
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The Plan provided insight to opportunities for leveraging resources,
drawing down federal funds and efficient use of existing resources
---with one caveat: these opportunities are tied to successful
partnerships between the services system and housing development
and management systems—the MFA, local Public Housing
Authorities, Community Development organizations and developers
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The NM Purchasing Collaborative’s
Approach to Supportive Housing
The assessment was also revealed:
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Over 30,000 New Mexicans with disabilities living on fixed incomes at
30% or below the Area Median Income are in need of supportive
housing
Vets, tribal members, families in the protective services system have
high service needs and low incomes
Most New Mexico communities have little capacity and infrastructure
to create and sustain deeply affordable housing with services attached
to their housing
Rental resources, the backbone of any supportive housing plan are
scare and need to generated for the Plan to be successful
Based on these assessments, the Purchasing Collaborative
immediately began implementing the Plan with a FY 2008 funding
request of $750,000 to high priority areas and a focus on creating
partnerships and a focus on capacity building and creating rental
resources tied to services
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The NM Purchasing Collaborative’s
Approach to Supportive Housing
The $750,000 Allocation was targeted to:
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$150,000 in MFA Pre-development grant funds that was
awarded to two developers who agreed to target units for
persons needing supportive housing
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$250,000 for Capacity Building grants also administered by MFA
to two organizations who are developing housing and targeting
units for supportive housing
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$350,000 to pilot Linkages, a new bridge rental subsidy program
jointly administered by local housing administrators and service
providers to test out the feasibility of model that utilizes rental
subsides and services funds---ultimately leading to a largely
federally funded program once capacity is established
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This program began with serving 30 persons in the Silver City
and Demming area, Santa Fe and Albuquerque
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The program is focused on seriously mentally ill persons
(including those with substance abuse disorders) who are
homeless, those at risk of homelessness and off reservation
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Native Americans
The NM Purchasing Collaborative’s
Approach to Supportive Housing
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In FY 2008, CYFD utilizing $150,000 of their own operating funds
developed a small 20 youth rental assistance/services pilot in
partnership with the Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico to test
out the feasibility of this model for youth transitioning out of the juvenile
services and protective service programs in Albuquerque
Early indications from both pilots: this is a feasible model and should be
expanded across the state
Armed with this Plan and experience with pilots, the Collaborative is
moving forwarded with:
---a new partnership for with MFA in their 2009 Low Income Tax Credit
Program application giving incentives to developers who “target” units for
persons with disabilities
---work with local communities to build capacity
---preparing to take advantage of federal funding opportunities
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Federal Housing Actions:
Potential for New Mexico
We are entering into an unusually positive and active
period of supportive housing activity at the federal level:
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Greater Congressional interest due to: major alliances among
national policy, advocacy and trade groups, very positive
outcomes of supportive housing and the housing and credit
crisis creating a need for more affordable housing and jobs
This interest has translated into:
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Passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act which
includes the National Housing Trust Fund, the Neighborhood
Stabilization Program and many other provisions
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Movement on the Frank Melville Act
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Federal Housing Actions:
Potential for New Mexico
The National Housing Trust Fund (part of Natl. Housing and
Economic Recovery Act):
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90% of the funds must be used for production, preservation, rehabilitation
or operation of rental housing
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75% of the funds must benefit extremely low income households
(people at or below 30% of the AMI) and all funds must benefit very low
income households.
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It will be distributed by HUD in grants to the states
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The HUD Secretary will establish a distribution formula within 12 months
and the state has two years to spend its allocation
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Funds will be available in 2010/funding is generated on Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac “transactions”
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States need capacity to use funds within allotted timeframes
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Federal Housing Actions:
Potential for New Mexico
Neighborhood Stabilization Program (part of the Natl. Housing and
Economic Recovery Act):
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A $3.92 billion CDBG program for the redevelopment of abandoned and
foreclosed properties
Grantees are CDBG jurisdictions (both state and local)
Funds can go toward both single family and rental properties and 25% of the
resources must benefit people at 50% or below of Area Median Income
Based on huge rush to get these funds into communities and create
construction jobs, many CDBG requirements can be waived and there is no
one-for-one replacement requirement
Natl. disability groups are working this week to proposes mechanisms to
assure people with disabilities will benefit from this program
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Federal Housing Actions:
Potential for New Mexico
Section 811 Reform: Frank Melville Act (HR 5772):
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Section 811 is a federally funded, deeply affordable permanent rental
housing program for people with disabilities. Funding covers housing
production, rental assistance and services
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This bill reforming the Section 811 program has passed out of the House
and just introduced in the Senate
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It authorizes a new and innovative Section 811 Project Rental Assistance
Contract (PRAC) Demonstration program to create thousands of new
Section 811 units each year without substantially increasing Section 811
appropriations levels by leveraging new set-asides of supportive housing
units in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties and
HOME-funded projects
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This program uses a competitive funding process and states with
supportive housing capacity will likely be more successful
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