Bright Spot: Gulf Port | Coordinating Services for Recently Housed Individuals

Partner community mental health centers with housing providers to provide mental health care and housing to chronically homeless individuals and formerly homeless individuals with disabilities [Chronic]

check out this bright spot if…

● Individuals housed by system resources are returning to the system for additional assistance 

● You want to try it! 

Summary

The Gulfport / Gulf Coast CoC works in tandem with local Community Mental Health Centers to provide mental health care and housing stabilization services to chronically homeless individuals. The original intent of this work was to address the gap in the care of individuals with mental disabilities who transitioned from institutional to community-based mental health care. The initiative has become more robust over time, and now plays a key role in both addressing and preventing chronic homelessness in the community. 

As Gulfport / Gulf Coast CoC works to sustain functional zero for its veteran population and reduce the number of veterans actively experiencing homelessness, the community is also highly involved in a push to end chronic homelessness. The Gulf Coast initiative to end chronic homelessness benefits from a strong partnership with area Community Mental Health centers and other partners to provide mental health care, house chronically homeless individuals, and provide housing stabilization support to housed individuals. This initiative provides a template model and implementation framework that other communities working to end chronic homelessness may find useful. Learning as they went, the Gulf Coast team realized that housing stabilization support that worked separately but in cooperation with mental health treatment was a key component to housing chronically homeless individuals and ensuring their long-term housing stability. 

CoC collaboration with Community Mental Health Centers and housing stabilization staff allowed Gulf Coast to accelerate their housing placement rate of chronically homeless people in 2016. 

Key Action: Aligning and Specifying the Role of Providers

The Gulf Coast team is testing this innovative model for working with chronically homeless individuals by ensuring that all work is aligned and specific in terms of what each provider’s role is as the individual is settling into housing. Staff serving individuals through this work target individuals who previously cycled in and out of hospitals, and those moving from institutional care to community-based care but may need extra support during the transition. While the partnership with area Community Mental Health Centers supported by Olmstead funding is still in its early stages and does not yet have any final results, Gulf Coast did notice a period of accelerated chronic housing placements over the spring and summer of 2016.

Key Action: High Group Accountability 
Gulf Coast partners working to end homelessness found that it was critically important to encourage and support each other through a collaborative, team-style leadership structure. They realized that they were each carrying a piece of the solution to ending homelessness, and that strong leadership in their community really means holding each part of the solution up every step of the way while working together toward the shared aim of ending chronic homelessness. 

Fail forward moments

As the Gulf Coast team tested out their collaborative model with the local mental health system, they realized they needed to make sure there were also resources dedicated to housing stabilization. They tweaked the program to add housing stabilization staff that work in cooperation with, but separate from the mental health treatment delivered at the Community Mental Health Centers. As the model continues, they continue to make improvements and enhancements to better serve chronically homeless (and formerly homeless) disabled individuals. 

Want more information?

Contact Mary Simons (marysimons2@aol.com) at Open Doors Continuum of Care