COSIG CONFERENCE BROCHURE.pdf - Drexel University College ...

esponsibility shared with consumers and one that requires coordination and
negotiation of mutual roles of mental health authorities, public assistance and housing
authorities, and the private sector.
Provision of Services
Necessary supports, including case management, on-site crisis interventions, and
rehabilitation services, should be available at appropriate levels and for as long as
needed by persons with psychiatric disabilities regardless of their choices of living
arrangements. Services should be flexible, individualized and promote respect and
dignity. Advocacy, community education and resource development should be
continuous.
Need – to provide an array of housing opportunities to individuals with mental illness in their
own communities, through application of flexible and creative housing strategies.
Many Counties have developed local housing options over the past 10 years which are
designed to meet local needs, using local resources. Those housing options have
included working closely with housing authorities to obtain public housing units and
section 8 program vouchers; and there are other models of supported housing that have
worked well in parts of the state.
In many Counties part of the MH County allocation goes to fund supported housing
models that involve rent subsidies, in which the provider agency rents an apartment and
sub-lets to eligible MH consumers; or the rent subsidy directly supports consumers in
lease based landlord tenant rental options. Staff can be available on-site in a flexible
delivery model, where staff interactions with tenants can vary both in intensity and
frequency, based on need. The supported living model still requires state money, through
County MH allocations to partially support the housing costs of the consumer; and some
of the same problems occur when the consumer is ready for a more independent living
situation, but still requires a housing rental subsidy.
The successful development of good local housing options can translate into a practice or
process that has the overt support of the state and which is portable to other counties.
What is needed is a new statewide focus on effectively utilizing available resources, with
an eye towards creating flexible service delivery models offering consumers a choice
through a coordinated continuum of local housing options, which in the long run will
move the state more into the business of offering treatment and less into the business of
funding housing.
• Ideally, a new focus would promote the concept that persons leaving state
hospitals and persons in the community with SMI who are in need of should have
secure housing of their own, which is affordable, decent, and permanent; a place
that can be called home. Agencies that are funded to provide housing and rent
support to low income individuals should be utilized to the fullest extent
possible to meet the housing needs of MH consumers.
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