Supportive housing

Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active 'community services and funding' stream across the United States. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders (including alcoholism), mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities (e.g., intellectual disabilities, mobility or sensory impairments) or other serious challenges to stable housing. Supportive housing can be coupled with such social services as job training, life skills training, alcohol and substance use disorder treatment, community support services (e.g., child care, educational programs, coffee claches), and case management to populations in need of assistance. Supportive housing is intended to be a pragmatic solution that helps people have better lives while reducing, to the extent feasible, the overall cost of care. As community housing, supportive housing can be developed as mixed income, scattered site housing not only through the traditional route of low income and building complexes. Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active 'community services and funding' stream across the United States. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders (including alcoholism), mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities (e.g., intellectual disabilities, mobility or sensory impairments) or other serious challenges to stable housing. Supportive housing can be coupled with such social services as job training, life skills training, alcohol and substance use disorder treatment, community support services (e.g., child care, educational programs, coffee claches), and case management to populations in need of assistance. Supportive housing is intended to be a pragmatic solution that helps people have better lives while reducing, to the extent feasible, the overall cost of care. As community housing, supportive housing can be developed as mixed income, scattered site housing not only through the traditional route of low income and building complexes. Supportive/ed housing has been widely researched in the field of psychiatric disabilities and psychiatric rehabilitation, based in part on housing and support principles from studies of leading community integration organizations nationally In addition, supportive/ed housing has been tied to national initiatives in supportive/ed living (usually developmental and intellectual disabilities) to cross-disability transfer and to national and international efforts on developing homes of one's own. Supported housing in the field of mental health is considered to be a critical component of a community support system which may involve supported education, supported or transitional employment, case management services, clubhouses, supported recreation and involvement of family and friends often translated into psychoeducational programs.