Service Provider

Available Toolkits

CoC Program Toolkit
HUD Housing Search Assistance Toolkit
Onboarding Toolkits for ESG-Funded Programs
Rapid Re-housing Toolkit

Case Management

This section is designed for housing case managers—your one-stop spot for resources, trainings, updates, and key documents.

Case Management Resources

Coordinated Entry System

Housing-Based Case Management Forms/Tools - Org Code

Source: OrgCode Consulting, Inc., collection of resources from the Excellence in Housing training series.

Mainstream Benefits Training Series

Free Webinars:

Permanent Supportive Housing

Rapid Re-Housing

Free RRH Trainings:
Resources for learning about RRH programs: 

Supportive Housing Learning Labs

Resources from the Supportive Housing Learning Labs: 

FAQs

Veteran FAQ

Harm Reduction

Principles of Harm Reduction

What is Harm Reduction?
  • Incorporating a spectrum of strategies including safer techniques, managed use, and abstinence to promote the dignity and wellbeing of people who use drugs
  • A framework for understanding structural inequalities like poverty, racism, homophobia, classism, etc.
  • Meeting people “where they are,” but not leaving them there
We Use People First Language:
  • A person is a person first, and a behavior is something that can change — terms like “drug addict” or “user” imply someone is “something” instead of someone
  • Stigma is a barrier to care and we want people to feel comfortable when accessing services
  • People are more than their drug use and harm reduction focuses on the whole person
Source: National Harm Reduction Coalition, harmreducation.org

Below are several TED Talks about Harm Reduction, which give a good overview of why it is so important for those we serve experiencing homelessness.

Free Harm Reduction Trainings:

Resources for learning more about Harm Reduction:

Housing First

What is Housing First?
  • Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life. This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, budgeting properly, or attending to substance use issues. Additionally, Housing First is based on the understanding that client choice is valuable in housing selection and supportive service participation, and that exercising that choice is likely to make a client more successful in remaining housed and improving their life.
How is Housing First different from other approaches?
  • Housing First does not require people experiencing homelessness to address the all of their problems including behavioral health problems, or to graduate through a series of services programs before they can access housing. Housing First does not mandate participation in services either before obtaining housing or in order to retain housing. The Housing First approach views housing as the foundation for life improvement and enables access to permanent housing without prerequisites or conditions beyond those of a typical renter. Supportive services are offered to support people with housing stability and individual well-being, but participation is not required as services have been found to be more effective when a person chooses to engage. Other approaches do make such requirements in order for a person to obtain and retain housing.
Who can be helped by Housing First?
  • A Housing First approach can benefit both homeless families and individuals with any degree of service needs. The flexible and responsive nature of a Housing First approach allows it to be tailored to help anyone. As such, a Housing First approach can be applied to help end homelessness for a household who became homeless due to a temporary personal or financial crisis and has limited service needs, only needing help accessing and securing permanent housing. At the same time, Housing First has been found to be particularly effective approach to end homelessness for high need populations, such as chronically homeless individuals.
What are the elements of a Housing First Program?
  • Housing First programs often provide rental assistance that varies in duration depending on the household’s needs. Consumers sign a standard lease and are able to access supports as necessary to help them do so. A variety of voluntary services may be used to promote housing stability and well-being during and following housing placement. Two common program models follow the Housing First approach but differ in implementation. Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is targeted to individuals and families with chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health issues, or substance use disorders who have experienced long-term or repeated homelessness. It provides longterm rental assistance and supportive services. A second program model, Rapid Re-housing (RRH), is employed for a wide variety of individuals and families. It provides short-term rental assistance and services. The goals are to help people obtain housing quickly, increase self-sufficiency, and remain housed. The Core Components of Rapid Re-housing—housing identification, rent and move-in assistance, and case management and services—operationalize Housing First principals.
Does Housing First work?
  • There is a large and growing evidence base demonstrating that Housing First is an effective solution to homelessness. Consumers in a Housing First model access housing faster and are more likely to remain stably housed. This is true for both PSH and RRH programs. PSH has a one-year housing retention rate of up to 98 percent. Studies have shown that RRH helps people exit homelessness quickly—in one study, an average of two months—and remain housed. A variety of studies have shown that between 75 percent and 91 percent of households remain housed a year after being rapidly re-housed.
  • More extensive studies have been completed on PSH finding that clients report an increase in perceived levels of autonomy, choice, and control in Housing First programs. A majority of clients are found to participate in the optional supportive services provided, often resulting in greater housing stability. Clients using supportive services are more likely to participate in job training programs, attend school, discontinue substance use, have fewer instances of domestic violence, and spend fewer days hospitalized than those not participating.
  • Finally, permanent supportive housing has been found to be cost efficient. Providing access to housing generally results in cost savings for communities because housed people are less likely to use emergency services, including hospitals, jails, and emergency shelter, than those who are homeless. One study found an average cost savings on emergency services of $31,545 per person housed in a Housing First program over the course of two years. Another study showed that a Housing First program could cost up to $23,000 less per consumer per year than a shelter program.
Source: "Housing First." National Alliance to End Homelessness, Aug. 2022.

Free Housing First Trainings:
Resources for learning more about Housing First:

Motivational Interviewing

What is Motivational Interviewing?
  • Motivational interviewing is a client-centered approach to case management that focuses on engaging an individual’s own internal motivations to help change behaviors and work toward goals. Core principles associated with this approach include*
    • Express empathy for clients’ experiences and views;
    • Support self-efficacy to help clients feel empowered to make changes, and affirm steps toward progress;
    • Roll with resistance to change, and explore reasons why a client wants to change rather than trying to convince them to change; and
    • Develop discrepancy to help clients understand how their current behaviors fit with their expressed goals.
Source: ROSS Guide: Working w/ Residents - Special Techniques to Promote Trust - HUD Exchange

Free Motivational Interviewing Trainings:
Resources for learning more about a client-centered approach, including the key strategy of motivational interviewing

National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE)

 NSPIRE 
  • Housing leased with CoC funds must meet the applicable housing quality standards (HQS) under 24 CFR 982.401.
  • Before any assistance will be provided on behalf of a program participant, the recipient, or subrecipient, must physically inspect each unit to assure that the unit meets HQS. Assistance will not be provided for units that fail to meet HQS, unless the owner corrects any deficiencies within 30 days from the date of the initial inspection and the recipient or subrecipient verifies that all deficiencies have been corrected.
  • Recipients or subrecipients must inspect all units at least annually during the grant period to ensure that the units continue to meet HQS

Trauma-Informed Care

What is Trauma-Informed Care?
  • Trauma-informed care means understanding that many people have experienced trauma—such as abuse, neglect, violence, discrimination, or homelessness—and this impacts how they think, feel, and behave. The experience of homelessness itself is traumatic, and many, if not most, people with lived experience of homelessness have trauma that may need to be addressed. Key principles of trauma-informed care include:
    • Safety: Create environments where people feel physically and emotionally safe.
    • Trustworthiness: Be honest, transparent, and consistent in your actions.
    • Empowerment: Focus on strengths and involve people in decision-making.
    • Choice: Offer options whenever possible to give people a sense of control.
    • Cultural Awareness: Understand that trauma may look different in different cultures.
Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services
 
What is a Trauma-informed approach?
  • A program, organization, or system that is trauma-informed realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system; and responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, and seeks to actively resist re traumatization
Source: SAMSHA Trauma-Informed Approaches and Programs

Free Trauma Informed Trainings:
Resources for learning more about Trauma-Informed Care: 

Veterans

Veteran Access Point Recording
Veteran Coordinated Entry Conversation
Veteran FAQ
Veteran Pathway to Housing HMIS User
Veteran Pathway to Housing Non- HMIS User

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