Service Provider

CoC Program Toolkit

CSH Supportive Housing Quality Toolkit

Eviction Prevention Toolkit

Homeless Prevention Toolkits and Frameworks

HUD Housing Search Assistance Toolkit

HUD COC and ESG Financial Management Overview

Onboarding Toolkits for ESG-Funded Programs

Rapid Re-housing Toolkit

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

Additional Resources and Links

Conflit of Interest

Fair Housing and Equal Access

Participant Termination

PSH Retention

Service Requirements

Eviction: Refers to the legal process initiated by a landlord to remove a tenant from a housing unit due to a lease violation. PSH programs will actively work to prevent evictions and uphold tenant rights.

• Eviction from the housing unit is a legal process initiated by the landlord for serious and persistent lease violations. PSH programs will only support or allow an eviction process to proceed in extremely limited circumstances, after all prevention and intervention efforts have been exhausted, and when the client's actions:
  • Threaten the Safety of Others: Documented, direct, and imminent threats of physical harm to the landlord, other tenants, program staff, or the community.
  • Cause Significant and Repeated Property Damage: Extensive and intentional damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear, or repeated minor damages that are not addressed by the client despite intervention.
  • Engage in Illegal Activity on the Premises: Documented illegal activities (e.g., manufacturing illegal drugs, violent felonies) that endanger the property or other residents.
  • Persistent Non-Payment of Tenant's Share of Rent: After all efforts to address financial challenges, provide financial literacy, and offer payment plans or temporary assistance have failed.

• The following are NOT grounds for program termination or eviction:
  • Active substance use or relapse (unless it directly leads to one of the serious lease violations listed above)
  • Refusal to engage in supportive services.
  • Mental health symptoms (unless they directly lead to one of the serious lease violations listed above).
  • Poor hygiene or housekeeping (unless it creates a severe health hazard that cannot be mitigated through support).
  • Having guests (unless it violates occupancy limits or leads to documented serious lease violations).
  • Minor or isolated lease violations that do not pose a significant threat to safety or property.

The Heartland Continuum of Care Permanent Supportive Housing Community Standards speaks to Termination vs Eviction, starting on page 16.

Resources for Eviction Prevention:

• Introduction to Eviction Prevention
• Eviction Prevention for Youth

Videos for Eviction Prevention:

• Eviction Prevention Video

PSH Exit Planning

• PSH housing cannot have a designated length of stay and must continue until the program participant chooses to exit the project or the recipient terminates the program participant from the project. However, PSH providers can support growth, recovery, independence, and program participant choice by recognizing that some program participants could reach a point where they want to and are able to move on to independent permanent housing (either subsidized or unsubsidized) while others will continue to need the intensive service environment of PSH for the foreseeable future.
• Providers offer individualized services throughout a program participant’s time in PSH that lead to improved quality of life, mental and physical health, employment, finances, and reduced substance use. Providers can build on this foundation by ensuring that program participants are aware of available opportunities if they are interested in moving on, and by delivering additional supports and services that better position program participants to move on eventually, if that is their desire.
• Moving On Strategies
• Moving on Services Guide

RRH Exit Planning 

• The goal of the CoC RRH project is to stabilize those that have recently been homeless and connect them to resources and supports that will assist them in maintaining housing stability.  Exit planning begins as soon as enrollment occurs.  What needs does the family/individual have and what should be in place for support to assist the household to maintain their housing stability?
• Rapid Re-Housing assistance should end – and the case should be closed – whenthe participant is no longer going to be imminently homeless. In some instances, case management may continue afterfinancial assistance ends, if appropriate or requested by the household. For those that will require ongoing support after exiting the RRH program, case managers should provide participants with warm handoffs to mainstream and community-based services that will continue to assist them. - National Alliance to End Homelessness: RRH Toolkit
• Case Closure Support Plan
• Case Closure Packet
• Case Closure Client Letter
• Exit Planning Template

Source: PSH Moving ON Services Guide. HUD
 

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Rent Reasonableness and Fair Market Rent under the Continuum of Care

Fair Market Rent Database

Fair Market Rent HUD Datasets

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:

• YouTube Video: Housing First: Principles into Practice
• Introduction to Housing First for Youth - Online Training
• Housing First for Youth Program Model
• Housing First for Youth Service Delivery Model

Resources for learning more about Housing First:

• Adopting a Housing First Approach Toolkit
• Housing First: A Review of the Evidence

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:

• YouTube Video: Theory and Practice of MI
• YouTube Video: Five Essential Strategies in Motivating Clients to Change
  • Dr. Marilyn Herie shares her top five motivational strategies with an emphasis on practical tips and tools. Learning Objectives: 1. Identify practical strategies to motivate change 2. Reflect on how you can adapt these strategies with your clients 3. Set concrete objectives for clinical practice. 

Resources for learning more about a client-centered approach, including the key strategy of motivational interviewing

• Family Self-Sufficiency Program Online Training – Module 3.1 of this training describes best practices for a client-centered approach.
• Making the Transition from Case Manager to Coach – This brief describes key components of a coaching approach to working with clients.
• The Co-Active Coaching Model – The Coaches Training Institute offers trainings and a free webinar on the Co-Active Coach Training program. This coaching model is client-driven, graduated into small steps, and supportive.
• Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University: Motivational Interviewing – The Center for Evidence-Based Practices offers information, resources, and tools including training information, on motivational interviewing.
• Spotlight on PATH Practices and Programs: Motivational Interviewing – Report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) detailing motivational interviewing and how to use it effectively.
• Encouraging Motivation to Change: Am I Doing This Right? – A checklist of questions from the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University to help Service Providers self-assess their awareness about their attitudes, thoughts and communication styles they conduct as they work.

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