W8-Building Intentional Partnerships to Reach Marginalized Communities

Presented by:Homeless Prevention Programs

Background

Since 1974, Solid Ground has helped our most vulnerable community members overcome economic crises and develop the skills and resources they need to overcome poverty.

Solid Ground’s Homeless Prevention Programs work to educate and empower people with tools to solve problems that jeopardize housing. As the scope and severity of homelessness have increased over the years, so too has our reach to our greater community as well as our range of services.

Solid Ground is committed to ending poverty, but to end poverty, we must undo racism. To inform our anti-racism work within the Homeless Prevention Programs, we have developed Anti-Racism Initiative (ARI) Guiding Principles which highlights strategic collaboration with community agencies so as to identify, address, and improve systems and policies that perpetuate housing problems and housing loss amongst marginalized populations in our community

Tenant Services ProgramEst. 1979

website: http://www.solid-ground.org/tenant

Initially provided services for tenants and landlords. Shifted focus and began serving only tenants in eviction

prevention and to ensure housing stability. 2003 City of Seattle housing tax levy allocated for funding of

rental assistance programs. Tenant Services assisted clients with rental assistance.

2003 Established a structured Tenant Services Hotline with hours of operation and designated tasks for Tenant Counselors to spend time in answering calls from tenants.

Began using the Rent Smart model to provide workshops and educational sessions in the community.

Partnered with agencies serving homeless and at risk individuals such as: Fare Start, Drug Court, Low Income Housing Providers.

Currently the Tenant Services Hotline operates from 10:30AM-4:30PM on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday taking calls statewide

Tenant Services Program

2004 Began offering rental assistance to tenants accessing the hotline.

2004-2005 Legislative Advocacy began by organizing with Tenants Union to gain grievance hearing rights for section 8 tenants in termination hearings and push for regulations within City of Seattle 3rd party utility billing ordinance to pass.

2005 Noticeable shift in type of callers experiencing housing needs due to housing cost increase and income remaining flat. Also dramatic increase of clients appearing to be experiencing mental health issues accessing the hotline.

2006 Hotline became overwhelmed by rental assistance requests.

2007 Created distinct collaborations with agencies that screened rental assistance clients; increasing efficiency of TS to focus on LLT issues and decreased work load for partnering agencies to have a referral system in place.

2009 Discontinued rental assistance through Tenant Services due to client needs, increase in workshops and limited capacity of the hotline. Began providing services in Spanish and using interpretation services for other non-English speakers.

Obstacles and AchievementsTenant Services Hotline is a triage crisis model focused on education and

prevention

Challenge: Tracking outcomes and following up with clients to reassure that they were connected to resources and that housing needs were met.

Success: Changing how outcomes are tracked. Reassuring that clients understand the next steps to take after each call and the self reliance nature of Landlord-Tenant relations. Empowering clients to access resources and assert their rights under the law.

Challenge: Very high volume of callers-especially tenants facing severe economic hardships and at immediate risk of loosing their housing well beyond the educational step.

Success: Providing workshops throughout the community to educate tenants with the intent to prevent housing issues and provide them with access to information before it is needed.

Challenge: Limited nature of our services. Triage-crisis model does not allow for follow up and long term case management for clients with high needs.

Success: Connecting clients with case management and other long term services in the community.

Obstacles and Achievements

Challenge: Language barriers for non-English speakers accessing the hotline. Success: Tenant Services Spanish Hotline created and contracting with

interpretation services to provide information to tenants in their home language. Success: Intentional partnerships with agencies serving immigrant/refugees and

other vulnerable populations.

Challenge: Difficulties in building strong and reliable partnerships with other agencies that may not have the same organizational structure and understanding of how distinct collaborations reduce work loads and increase efficiencies.

Success: Providing workshops to fit specific client needs and building partnerships to include satellite offices to bring services to clients;

Challenge: Perceived notion by the provider community that collaboration equal ‘advertising’ services that results in more clients.

Success: Development of website content. Offering provider workshops and continuing to address the importance of intentional collaboration not as outreach and advertisement but as a developed form of partnership with other service providers in the community to reach marginalized communities, share resources and reduce work loads.

In 2010 Tenant Services served 1,712 tenants in eviction prevention and housing rights through hotline and workshops.

In the last ten years the number of clients served has reached nearly 20,000 statewide.

King County Housing Stability Project

Background

The King County Housing Stability Project has been a program of Solid Ground serving King County residents since 1994.

Anti-Racism Initiative (ARI) Guiding Principles of KCHSP highlights using strategic outreach to seek out communities with a high risk of housing loss, limited access to community resources and multiple barriers to housing. We also utilize our client surveys to not only gather outcome information, but to ensure that clients are receiving culturally relevant and respectful services.

HSP began as a ‘drive-thru’ one time rental assistance program.

In early 2000’s client needs increased with a higher number of risk factors and a greater need for additional case management.

Partnerships with the Housing Justice Project and the Legal Action Center were developed to help clients that were farther along in the eviction process.

Access to program is through Community Information Line (211) and community partners.

King County Housing Stability Project

website: www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Housing/Stability

Intentional Partnerships

Subcontracting Partnerships

6 agencies serving the North and East King County. 5 agencies serving South King County. 4 agencies serving the Seattle area. 4 agencies throughout King County take direct referrals

from Veterans Affairs and the King County Veterans Program.

Intentional Outreach Outreach is no longer just getting program information out

to the community at large, it is intentional partnerships and reaching under-served communities.

Develop relationships with agencies specializing in specific populations, such as Veterans, where clients and case managers already have developed trust.

Obstacles and AchievementsVeterans Groups

Challenge: Difficult to develop relationships with community groups when we are not members of that community.

Success: There is a pre-existing trust between Veterans and the agencies that have many Veterans on staff.

Challenge: Difficult to sync systems without a binding contract or work agreement.

Success: Veterans groups such as the VA and KCVP can offer wrap-around services for clients.

Clients658

Veterans GroupsReferrals66 (10%)

211Referrals447 (68%)

Partnerships and Internal Referrals

145 (22%)

Clients are referred, based on location, to one of our 15 partner

sites.

Clients are referredto one of four agencies that

take direct Veteranreferrals.

Partner sites take walk-in clientsand programs at Solid Ground

can refer clients, mainly Veterans, to HSP staff.

King County Housing Stabilization Services

King County Housing Stabilization Serviceswebsite: www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Housing/Stabilization-KC

Implemented at the beginning of 2010 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Provides homelessness prevention services as part of HUD’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP).

Assistance to families and individuals living in King County, outside of Seattle, who are at risk of becoming homeless to stabilize their housing through the provision of stabilization services.

Access to program is through Community Information Line (211) and intentional community partnerships.

In 2010, the Program served 120 households at imminent risk of losing their housing. This program filled a gap in our community by offering a prevention program that could work with people for 3-6 months rather than just one-time rental assistance.

From July-December of 2010, over 3000 eligible households were turned away from the program because of limited program resources. In the same time period, more than 7000 households were seeking assistance.

Intentional Partnerships

Subcontracting Partnerships Two major partnerships with agencies serving the

North, East and South ends of King County. Provide the case management and supportive

services in accordance with subcontracting agreement.

Referring Partnerships Targeting agencies who serve marginalized populations

including immigrants, refugees, limited-English speakers, persons with mental and/or physical disabilities and households in precarious housing situations.

Particularly serving populations who have barriers to the primary access point of 211.

Obstacles and Achievements Challenge: Using the 211 system for the primary access point to the

program creates barriers for clients who have disabilities, are non-english speaking and whose housing situation changes on a daily basis.

Success: Created intentional referral partnerships with agencies in the community who work directly with people experiencing these barriers to 211.

Challenge: The large number of calls to 211 for housing-related needs created challenges for the staff and the phone system as well as frustration for the callers seeking assistance.

Success: Changes were made to the phone system providing some relief to help clear the phone lines for those seeking non-housing related resources and referrals. This change also made the process easier for clients by providing direct referrals at the time of the first call rather than asking the client to call back and compete with hundreds of other callers at the same time.

Challenge: The level of need in the community is much greater than what the program can support. This brings up the question of whether we even need “outreach” to notify more clients of the program.

Success: The outreach is designed not to increase the number of clients seeking assistance but rather to identify and target clients most in need at the same time as reducing the barriers to access the program to ensure equal opportunity to all those in need of services.

Obstacles and Achievements

Challenge: “Prevention” has historically meant some type of one-time financial assistance and we were transitioning to a program with an emphasis on case management support.

Success: Messaging became very important at all levels of the program. Program staff worked closely with 211 to implement messaging tools to help emphasize the housing stabilization services rather than financial assistance. This also helped clients access programming that fit their needs most appropriately.

Challenge: Multiple agencies providing services for one program became a challenge because of the differences in agency culture and philosophies on case management best practices.

Success: Solid Ground Program staff created case management standards and provided regular training and support to improve the housing stabilization services and ensure that services were consistent from one agency to the next.

Success: Solid Ground began to provide case management in-house to fully participate in the provision of services and promote consistent case management standards.

Seattle Housing Stabilization Services

Seattle Housing Stabilization Services website: http://www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Housing/Stabilization-Sea

Established in early 2010 as a part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Provides homelessness prevention services in City of Seattle as part of HUD’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP).

Assistance to families and individuals with low income who are at risk of becoming homeless to stabilize their housing through housing stabilization services.

Access to program is through Community Information Line (CIL/211) and intentional community partners.

Early 2010 partnerships were derived from previous partnerships established by Tenant Services for their rental assistance program.

In 2010 the program served 64 households at imminent risk of housing loss.

Partnerships in 2010

Approx 65% referrals through partnering agency and 35% through 2-1-1.

New model for intentional partnerships based on increased capacity of the program to provide case management services .

Targeting outreach to those who have limited access to services through 2-1-1 because of the impacts of oppression and other barriers to housing stability.

Investing in one-on-one relationship building with partnering agencies.

Target Population

Agencies

People with low income and multiple barriers

CPC, Housing Justice Project, Seattle Jobs Initiative, Access to Success, CAMP, FareStart

Tenants in substandard or doubled up housing

Seattle Public School, Neighborcare health, Childhaven

People with Disabilities

Alliance of people with disabilities

LGBTQ renters Northwest Network

Survivors of domestic violence

Chaya, Northwest Network

Public Housing and Section 8

CHHIP, PHG

“Called 2-1-1, directed to Solid Ground, they were full. Later, faced with eviction, connected to Solid Ground through the Housing Justice Program.”

Seattle HSS Client

Statistics

Of the 64 Families and Individuals served in 2010:

73% of Immigrant and Refugee households were referred from partnering agencies. All East African households and limited English speaking households came through partnering agencies.

90% of referrals for households living with family or friends were made by partnering agencies.

Of the 5 households at final stages of eviction 4 were referred through partnering agencies and 1 through CIL

Barriers to access 2-1-1

•Language

Barriers

•Limited capacity to assess changing household situation

•Limited capacity to assess imminent risk of housing loss

27%

73%

CIL

Parter Agencies

IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES

10%

90%

CIL

Partner Agencies

DOUBLED-UP

20%

80%

CIL

PartnerAgencies

Eviction

Obstacles and Achievements“Challenge will help you grow-you can’t fear anymore. We’re living today to get to

tomorrow, because it’s only going to get better and better.” Seattle HSS Client

Challenge: Multiple barriers to access the program for marginalized households using CIL.

Success: Being able to reach communities that may not have had access to the program through 2-1-1.

Challenge: Navigating community agency structures to explore partnerships for example no response from some community agencies that were approached to explore partnership, information about the program not percolating to all partnering agencies staff members etc.

Success: Building strong partnerships to enhance coordination of services and specialized knowledge sharing to provide more holistic services for clients. Navigating cultural differences and organizing multiple meetings to percolate information to direct service staff.

Challenge: Identifying agencies and systems that people at risk of losing their housing with multiple barriers maybe accessing.

Success: Creation of evaluation standards and tools to evaluate agencies partnerships through an anti-oppression lens to reach marginalized communities.

Partnerships in 2011

Continued efforts to increase outreach to marginalized communities for example immigrants and refugees.

Growth in case management capacity by providing bilingual case management and further opportunities to case conference.

Persistent efforts to gather feedback from Advisory Council, former clients and partnering agencies to continue to strengthen partnerships.

Target Population

Agencies

People with low income and multiple barriers

CPC, HJP, FareStart, Harborview, CAMP, Career Connections, Seattle Jobs Initiative, Access to Success

Tenants in substandard or doubled up housing

Seattle Public School, Neighborcare health

People with Disabilities

Alliance of people with disabilities

LGBTQ renters Northwest Network

Survivors of domestic violence

Chaya, Northwest Network

Immigrants and Refugees

Horn of Africa, Muslim Housing Services

For more information please contact:

Solid Ground

Homeless Prevention Programs

1501 N 45th St

Seattle WA 98103

206-694-6700

www.solid-ground.org