Rapid ReHousing in Cincinnati, OH

1
Rapid Re-Housing in Cincinnati, OH

• Family Shelter
• Partnership Program
• Administrator Bethany House Services Inc.
• Program Director Laura Osborn-Coffey, LISW-S

2
The FSPP in Cincinnati is

• The 5 Family Shelters in Hamilton County who work
  collaboratively are
• Bethany House Services
• Interfaith Hospitality Network
• Mercy Franciscan at St. John
• The Salvation Army of Greater Cincinnati
• The YWCA Battered Womens Shelter

3
The FSPP

• Has been established since 1999
• One full-time FSPP case manager in each shelter
• Has a focused case management plan for each
  family in shelter, includes goals of housing and
  income
• Provides direct assistance funds for families
• Created a Central Access Point effective March
  2008

4
FSPP and Dept. of Jobs and Family Services works
together

• Dedicated OWF Income Maintenance worker stops
  the clock on sanctions, assists with obtaining
  income in shelter, assesses for other needs
• Refer exiting clients to Shelter Solutions for
  job readiness and maintaining income

5
VESTA the Communitys Homeless Management
Information System

• Each CoC agency within Hamilton County utilizes
  Vesta for data tracking
• Since June 2000 VESTA tracked progress of FSPP
  74 of all families had only 1 shelter stay
• In 2006-2007- 1,287 families served, 86 of
  families had 1 stay average shelter stay was 32
  nights

6
FSPP Recidivism

• The multiple stays within the FSPP in 2006/07
  included
• 14 had two shelter stays
• 11 had three shelter stays
• 2 (less than 10 cases) had 4 or more stays
• Increased number of stays were most usually the
  Domestic Violence cases

7
Central Access Point

• Need for a Central Access Point emerged over the
  last year when clients reported that it was
  increasingly difficult to get into shelters
• Began in March 2008
• Provides a Single point of Access to FSPP
  Shelter Beds
• Provides referrals into Homelessness Prevention
  Project
• Refers DV calls straight to the YWCAs BWS
  Hotline

8
CAP in Hamilton County

• CAP looks like an airplane seat finder
• Color Coded red is full, yellow is pending,
  green is bed is open
• Shelters configured CAP to setup of their shelter
  
• CAP is an integral part of the RRH Application

9
CAP looks like
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Leveraged Resources for RRH

• The Health Foundation, grant to provide Mental
  Health Case Manager
• MOU with the MHARS board hire worker and work
  closely with MHAP
• Apartments Model Management and CMHA were
  approached for services
• Other agencies provided leverage including legal,
  landlord tenant issues, and community resources

11
Planning phase for RRH

• Monthly timeline developed
• Looking at hiring in May/June for start up in
  July
• Working with the MHARS board, and the Health
  Foundation re mental health staffing
• Collaboration with other community agencies who
  offered leverage for the program
• Developing training process for RRH staff

12
RRH Program Moderate level

• The RRH program will serve the Moderate level
  of clients
• 3.5 RRH Staff persons
• 2.5 Case Managers will provide ongoing case
  management during and after shelter stay, for
  stability
• 1 mental health specialist will address clients
  mental health issues
• The housing specialist will address clients
  housing needs

13
Screening Levels of shelter clients

• The following are the designations of difficulty
  of clients to be served in RRH (according to
  HUD)
• Mild
• Moderate 2 3 eviction history, possible OWF
  sanctions, money/job issues, 2nd shelter stay,
  sMI
• Hard

14
RRH and CAP

• CAP staff will
• Apply screening levels to refer people to
  Shelters will also identify the Moderate
  level client for the RRH Program
• Shelter Case Managers will
• Assess for the RRH program during Shelter Intake
• RRH staff will
• Take on client cases in shelter, with goal of
  moving them on quickly, provide CM services in
  their homes post-shelter for up to 12 months

15
Process

• RRH Case managers will meet with clients in
  Shelters, assist with housing and ongoing case
  management
• Case managers will continue work with clients
  through home visits, provide ongoing assistance
  for up to 12 months
• Will be integrated with current FSPP to
  facilitate positive outcomes for clients
• Serve 60 families at any point in time, to 180
  over 3 years

16
Outcomes

• RRH in Cincinnati will provide outcomes
  including
• Stability in Housing, long term
• Income
• Collaborative Community Resources
• Referrals