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What is supportive housing?
Supportive housing is permanent housing with social services for the formerly homeless, people with mental and/or medical disabilities, the elderly, and low-income individuals. Supportive housing combines affordable accommodations with services like mental health and substance abuse counseling, job training and placement, community activities, and help with life skills like cooking and money management.
Why was it developed?
Supportive housing was created by non-profits around the country as a more holistic response to homelessness. According to the 2002 Status Report on Hunger and Homlessness, at least 55% of homeless single adults in the United States have problems such as mental illness, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS — problems which contribute to their homelessness. By offering a variety of support services designed to address these issues, supportive housing has paved the way for an effective approach to solving homelessness.
What does it look like?
It looks like every other type of housing because it is like other housing. Tenants have their own apartments, hold their own leases and are responsible for upholding the terms of those leases. In West Hollywood, California, supportive housing can be rehabilitated bungalows; in Ohio, it can be six two-unit houses; in New York City, it can be an old hotel restored to house hundreds of people. What’s important – both for neighbors and tenants – is that supportive housing is integrated both socially and physically into the surrounding community, and maintains quality property management.
Does it really offer an effective solution to homelessness?
Two long-term government studies have shown that more than 83% of the homeless individuals placed in supportive housing have remained in permanent housing and have reintegrated into mainstream society.
How much does it cost?
While the cost of supportive housing varies according to the populations housed, the variety of services provided and the location, supportive housing generally costs on average $13,000 per tenant per year. Maintaining a permanent apartment with supportive services at Common Ground’s supportive housing residences in New York costs approximately $11,400 annually; in comparison, a New York City municipal shelter costs the City between $23,000-$36,000 per person per year to operate, and maintaining a psychiatric hospital bed in New York costs up to $250,000 per year.
For more information:
- The Corporation for Supportive Housing website includes extensive information on supportive housing, including photographs, publications and on-line articles.
- The Supportive Housing Network of New York, a coalition of 160 private non-profit supportive housing providers, also maintains a website with useful information about supportive housing and advocacy in New York.
