More than 5,000 of Connecticut’s unhoused residents rely on supportive housing to transition to a permanent and safe living environment. Many of these residents live in supportive housing while receiving mental health and addiction treatment.
However, those services are under threat as the national landscape around homelessness changes.
Supportive housing offers residents a temporary place to live and provides various social services designed to break the cycle of living chronically unhoused, and experiencing severe trauma or illness.
Housing advocates and service providers gathered this week in New Haven for the fourth annual Connecticut Housing Conference, hosted by the state Department Of Housing. Officials lamented the state of supportive housing.
Being chronically homeless means a person spent 12 consecutive months, or 12 months over a spread of three years, without a home of their own, according to Department of Housing Deputy Commissioner Julian Pierce.
“It works just like regular market housing works,” Pierce said. “The tenant holds their own lease. It is subsidized. They don't pay more than 30% of their income, and it really is the best practice when it comes to our work and preventing and ending homelessness.”
Demand for supportive housing is high, but availability is low, due in part to low turnover.
Of the roughly 5,000 supportive housing units in Connecticut, only about 900 saw turnover last year, Pierce said. Most people stay in their supportive housing units for an average of seven years.
The state’s housing shortage and high rent costs make it even more difficult for residents to find suitable housing that isn’t part of the supportive network.
“The biggest issue is the exit to where,” Pierce said. “They're not going to leave the housing where they have the access to the services, the medical, the mental, the workforce development, the case management, folks need it.”
Of the supportive housing residents that move, about 10% just shift to a different supportive unit. Another 37% move out of supportive housing to other stable options, like living with friends or family, Pierce said.
About 14% are able to transition to their own, self-paid, permanent housing.
It can be difficult to find appropriate housing for people with certain disabilities or of certain ages, according to Pierce.
“That's a lot of folks' final housing,” Pierce said. “Fifteen percent, give or take, their exit is to [the] deceased, so it's their forever home.”
The part of supportive housing that is most at risk are the treatment programs,, the reliable mental and physical health services and accessible facilities that tenants rely on, according to Pierce.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is shifting funding away from supportive housing.
“The service portion is certainly in jeopardy and services are the most critical aspect of the program,” Pierce said. “They're just as critical as the roof over these folks' heads.”
Supportive housing drawbacks and solutions
Recent reports show Connecticut’s supportive housing program is overworked and underfunded, according to the housing advocacy group Partnership for Strong Communities.
Supportive housing is an economical way to tackle the housing and homelessness crises, according to the report.
But, case workers and service providers experience high burnout and turnover rates, making the quality of treatment and care unstable. Provider pay is also incommensurate to the amount of work, according to the report.
Homeless service providers say solutions to the demand include building more supportive housing and establishing strong relationships with landlords, making them more inclined to take a chance on a formerly unhoused resident.
St. Vincent de Paul in Middletown offers to pay repairs for any damages caused by tenants of local supportive housing landlords, according to Executive Director Maryellen Shuckerow.
“When we're presenting someone that has an eviction history, sometimes I'll pay a higher security deposit, but make sure that that landlord knows that our case manager stands behind this tenant and is often touching base, seeing the apartment, working through any problems,” Shuckerow said.
The money comes from a mix of fundraising and HUD grants, but Shuckerow said it’s worth it to keep landlords on their team.
“It's about relationship building,” Shuckerow said. “Most years, I dip into our fundraising dollars to pay for some damages. I've paid up to $8,000 for damage to a unit, and I've paid as low as getting my security deposit back.”
