National Research
Bridges to Housing project managers have benefited from the hard work of many people and organizations across the country. For more information on approaches to addressing the problem of family homelessness, please visit the following web sites.
Hearth Connection Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot
The National Center on Family Homelessness is conducting an independent evaluation of the Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot, an innovative permanent supportive housing demonstration project in St. Paul and Mankato, Minnesota. The program seeks to help single adults and families whose homelessness is exacerbated by other difficulties such as medical problems, mental illness, chemical dependency, or histories of trauma. Participants are given access to permanent affordable housing, a range of supportive services, and a primary provider to help them access services they need. Hearth Connection, the non-profit agency managing the project, selected The National Center to conduct the evaluation. http://www.familyhomelessness.org/hearthconnection.html
Sound Families
The Sound Families Initiative is a program established in 2000 to curb family homelessness in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties in
Washington State. It was started with a $40 million grant from the Gates Foundation to create 1,500 new housing units and support
services for families in transition out of homelessness in the Puget Sound region. Working in close partnership with regional housing
authorities, hundreds of Sound Families units are now funded in rural, suburban and urban areas in each of the three counties.
The University of Washington’s School of Social Work is evaluating the program, and a recently released mid-course evaluation
indicates progress. A majority of families increased their incomes and moved to fair-market, public or subsidized housing after
leaving the Sound Families program. http://soundfamilies.org
Washington Families Fund
Washington Families Fund, the first resource of its kind for homeless families statewide. Established by the Washington Legislature
in 2004 with a $2 million appropriation, it made Washington the first state in the nation to create a reliable, long-term source of
funding for supportive services to homeless children and their families. The Washington Families Fund fills an acute need — stable,
long-term funding for both on- and off-site supported services linked to affordable housing. This dependable source of funding
allows nonprofit organizations to increase comprehensive and individualized case management services for homeless families throughout the state.
http://www.aidshousing.org/
Corporation for Supportive Housing
The Corporation for Supportive Housing was established in 1991 with funding from three of the nation’s leading philanthropies –
the Pew Charitable Trusts, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Ford Foundation – to support the individual efforts of local nonprofit
pioneers developing service-supported housing for those most in need: people coping with homelessness and extreme poverty, as well as
chronic health conditions such as mental illness, addiction or HIV/AIDS.
CSH has offices in 10 states (California, Connecticut,
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York,
Ohio and Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. National
staff works out of the California, Minnesota, and New York offices. In addition, the organization operates targeted initiatives in Colorado,
Kentucky, Maine, Oregon, and Washington. CSH is also affiliated with the Oakland, CA-based Frequent Users
of Health Services Initiative, and the Minneapolis, MN-based Hearth Connection. http://www.csh.org
National Alliance to End Homelessness
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to mobilize the nonprofit, public and private
sectors of society in an alliance to end homelessness. The Alliance represents a united effort to address the root causes of homelessness
and challenge society’s acceptance of homelessness as an inevitable by-product of American life. Guiding our work is the Ten Year
Plan to End Homelessness. The Ten Year Plan identifies our nation's current weaknesses in addressing the problem and lays out practical
steps that our nation can take to change our present course and truly end homelessness within ten years. The main areas of our work
include: informing policy makers at the federal level about ways in which they can help to end homelessness across the nation, providing
assistance to service providers, advocates, and public officials in developing and implementing plans to end homelessness in their
communities, increasing the number of Americans educated about the issues, causes and solutions of homelessness and engaged in pursuing
its permanent end. http://www.endhomelessness.org/