“Housing First” models offer great hope for housing individuals and households who face significant barriers to housing. Oregon has been a leader in this work, but more needs to be done in every community, and we need opportunities to learn from one another. Join us as we hear about and map examples of work being done now in Oregon to move this approach forward. Bill Hall, Commissioner, Lincoln County Kenny La Point, Systems Integrator, Oregon Housing and Community Services Marc Jolin, Director, A Home for Everyone Heather Lyons, Corporation for Supportive Housing

1. The Source for
Housing Solutions
Neighborhood Partnerships
RE: Conference
RE: Design
Housing First in Oregon
October 30, 2015

3. Focus: Improving Lives for Most Vulnerable

4. CSH is a touchstone for new ideas and best practices,
a collaborative and pragmatic community partner,
and an influential advocate for supportive housing.
Lines of
Business
Training
&
Education
Policy
Reform
Consulting
&
Assistance
Lending
Research-backed tools, trainings
and knowledge sharing
Powerful capital funds,
specialty loan products and
development expertise
Custom community planning
and cutting-edge innovations
Systems reform, policy
collaboration and advocacy

5. Building Strong, Healthy Communities
Locations where CSH has staff stationed
Locations where CSH has helped build strong communities

6. DEFINING HOUSING FIRST: A DEEPER DIVE
RE: Design
Housing First in Oregon

7. Activity
Time

9. Housing First

10. Few to no programmatic prerequisites to permanent housing entry
Low barrier admission policies
Rapid and streamlined entry into housing
Supportive services are voluntary, but can and should be used to persistently engage tenants to
ensure housing stability
Tenants have full rights, responsibilities, and legal protections
Practices and policies to prevent lease violations and evictions
Applicable in a variety of housing models, single and scattered site

11. Few to no programmatic prerequisites
to permanent housing entry

12.  How do you create quick access?
 What do you need to know to house
someone?
 Why do you reject applicants?
 How long does your process take?
Low barrier admission policies

13.  Create a straightforward application process
• Examine who can really get in
• Does your program serve the homeless of your
community today?
• Are your entrance criteria as open as possible?
When was the last time you looked at them?
• Do the staff understand the applicant stress points
at application and during the process?
• Does an applicant get enough information to
understand how this PSH will help them stay
housed?
Rapid and streamlined entry into housing

14. Supportive services are voluntary...
What are voluntary services?
Participation in
services is not a
condition of
tenancy
Services are
voluntary for
tenants...not staff
Staff must work
to build
relationships
with tenants
Emphasis should
be on user-
friendly services
driven by tenant
needs and
individual goals

15. Supportive services are voluntary...
 Even when services are not required as a
condition of tenancy, tenants participate at high
rates.
 Tenants value the services available to them, as
well as the autonomy to decide which services to
participate in.
 “Low demand” model is much more likely to house
and retain formerly homeless people, especially
those with significant disabilities and long
homeless histories.

16. What Harm Reduction Is
Philosophy that recognizes the resilience of
individuals
• Allows providers to intervene with active users who are
not yet contemplating abstinence
Expands the therapeutic conversation

17. Neither for or against drug use
Consent to use
Don’t ask, Don’t Tell
Anything Goes
Anti-abstinence
What Harm Reduction is Not

18. Tenants have full rights, responsibilities,
and legal protections
 Housing Unit Choice
 Lease
 Understanding the Lease

19. Practices and policies to prevent
lease violations and evictions
 Mission Oriented Property Management
 Property Management and Service Staff talk to
each other on a regular basis
 Program Rules

20. A Special Note About Program Rules

21.  The curfew times are 10pm Sunday-Thursday and 11pm on Friday
and Saturday. Residents are expected to wait outside of their
apartments 10 minutes prior to curfew. If a resident is not in
attendance for curfew check their apartment will be entered by staff
to verify whether or not the resident is present.
 All piercings, except earrings, must be removed when entering the
________________. No new piercings are allowed.
 Hair must be kept neat and clean. Hair may not be dyed any color
except a natural hair color.
 Men must shave daily. You may not shave your head.
 No new tattoos are allowed.
 All dinners are community meals. If a resident is not hungry when
the meal is served, she must still come to the table.

22.  No Sleeping in rooms until after 3:00 p.m. (Mon-Fri) unless
approved.
 No T.V. in rooms before 3:00 p.m. (Mon-Fri) except Holidays.
 No Body Piercing, Tattoos, Earrings..
 Must Check-In/Out with Security when leaving property.
 Residents are allowed to have vehicles with case manager
approval; provided they can prove they possess a valid driver’s
license and have current insurance. Please park your vehicle in an
assigned, designated parking space only. Failure to obtain case
manager approval for a vehicle or to provide a valid driver’s license
and proof of insurance is grounds for termination.

25. Permanent Supportive Housing

26. The unit is
available to and
intended for an
individual or
family whose
head of
household who
has …
chronic conditions that are at
least episodically disabling, such
as mental illness, substance
abuse, and other chronic health
issues*
AND
been homeless for long periods
of time, or experienced repeated
stays in the streets, emergency
shelters, or other temporary
settings, often cycling between
homelessness and hospitals,
jails, prisons, or other
emergency systems.
* Other substantial barriers to housing stability (e.g., domestic
violence, trauma, or history of out-of-home placements) usually
accompany these.

27. The tenant household ideally pays no more than 30%
household income towards rent and utilities, and
never pays more than 50% of income toward such
housing expenses;
The tenant household has a lease (or similar form of
legal occupancy agreement) with no limits on length
of tenancy, as long as the terms and conditions of the
lease or agreement are met;
The unit’s operations are managed through an
effective partnership among representatives of the
project owner and/or sponsor, the property
management agent, the supportive services
providers, and the tenants;

28. All members of the tenant household have easy,
facilitated access to a flexible and comprehensive
array of supportive services to help them achieve and
sustain housing stability.
Service providers actively engage tenants in on-site
and community-based supportive services, but
participation in such supportive services is not a
condition of ongoing tenancy.
Service and property management/landlord strategies
include effective, coordinated approaches for
addressing issues resulting from substance use,
relapse, and mental health crises, with a focus on
fostering housing stability.

29. PSH Housing Design
Scattered
site
housing
Mixed
tenancy
housing
Single
site
housing

30. Single
Site
Scattered
Site
OR

31. BENEFITS OF SINGLE SITE
PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING
RE: Design
Housing First in Oregon

32. “A community is the mental and
spiritual condition of knowing that
the place is shared, …. It is the
knowledge that people have of
each other, their concern for each
other, their trust in each other,
the freedom with which they
come and go among
themselves.”
– Wendell Berry

35. BENEFITS OF SCATTERED SITE
RE: Design
Housing First in Oregon

36. Community Integration

39. Single
Site
Scattered
Site
OR

41. CSH’s Supportive
Housing Institute

42. CSH Supportive Housing Institute
Online, classroom training, and intensive technical
assistance
Moves teams through steps to create a SH project
Can significantly reduce the time it takes
Builds strong development teams equipped to navigate
the complex process of developing housing

43. Target Population, Location, and
Project Concept
Commitment to
Housing First
Project
Design,
Outcomes
Budget
Project Sponsor and
Project Partners
Services &
Prop Mgt.
Fair
Housing
Institute Steps

44. CSH Supportive Housing Institute

45. Source Material:
CSH Dimensions of Quality SH

46. Example: Indiana

47. CHANGE MANAGEMENT
RE: Design
Housing First in Oregon

48. For Simplicity’s Sake…
 Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and
techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
 Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage
the people-side of change to achieve the required business outcome.
From: Prosci – Change Management Learning Center

49. Transition Models
From Dangerous Opportunity – by Chris Musselwhite Mba, Quinn
Dalton

50. Optional

51. They resist being changed.
People don't resist change.
There's only 1 way to get people to support change -
by involving them in creating it.
-Applied Improviser

52. Housing First Will Not...
 Solve the Affordable Housing crisis
 Erase the stigma of people experiencing addictions and mental illness
 Reset the economic balance in our country to reduce (eliminate) poverty
 Get rid of the hold that private industry has on the correctional systems
 Stop war
 Reduce belly fat or grow thicker hair

53. Photo Credits
 http://mrsmcclass.blogspot.com/2012/08/beaker-meets-edvard-
munchs-scream.html
 http://mrsmcclass.blogspot.com/2012/08/beaker-meets-edvard-
munchs-scream.html
 https://cmtysolutions.org/update/ending-homelessness-through-
housing-first
 http://www.chp-sf.org/
 www.poorlydrawnlines.com
 http://www.emerge-mn.org/OurImpact/CommunityDevelopment.aspx
 http://www.propertymanagerdirectory.com/what-is-property-
management
 https://www.livingcities.org/blog/795-why-involve-community-in-
collective-impact-at-all
 http://www.papersource.com/item/T.Hanks-Letterpress-Thank-You-
Card/453894.html

54. Heather.lyons@csh.org