2.7 Supportive housing programs

Safe, affordable housing accompanied by other supports can both prevent foster care for a growing number of children and reunify as many as 30 percent of children in care with their families. [i] Research has documented that families who experience homelessness have an increased risk of involvement in the child welfare system. One study found that homeless women had almost seven times greater risk of child welfare involvement than non-homeless women and almost nine times the risk that one or more of their children would be placed in out-of-home care. [ii] Inadequate housing is the primary reason for 10 to 30 percent of foster care placements – a poor response to homelessness and other family housing problems that often result from family economic crises and domestic violence. [iii]

Housing assistance and supportive services for families are a cost-effective alternative to out-of-home placement. The average cost of housing and support services for families is estimated to be 70 percent less than the cost of foster care, resulting in savings nationwide of $1.94 billion per year ($31,964 per family). [iv] However, a federal study found that only one in 50 primary caregivers for children in foster care received temporary shelter or a housing payment and only five percent received housing. [v] African American families needing housing are even less likely than whites to receive the services. [vi]

Supportive housing programs represent a growing gap in the resources that families need to care for their children. While these services have been shown to be effective in preserving and reunifying families, their availability is severely limited by lack of federal, state and local investment. Portable vouchers, widely considered to be the most effective and low-cost approach to expanding affordable housing in desirable neighborhoods, are provided by the federal government through the Housing Choice Voucher (formerly Section 8), [vii] Unfortunately, in 2003 three-quarters of eligible households were unable to receive these vouchers due to lack of funding. [viii]

In 1990, Congress authorized the Family Unification Program, a HUD-administered program that targeted low income families with inadequate housing who had been separated or who faced separation from their children and to youth aging out of foster care. This successful program provided housing vouchers as well as support services such as food, counseling, health services, mental health care, financial education, and employment services. [ix] The program awarded 39,000 housing vouchers and is credited with allowing more than 100,000 children to return home from foster care or avoid out-of-home placement. [x] Evaluation of the program found that up to 62 percent of the separated families had all of their children returned to them and 90 percent of the at-risk families were able to keep all of their children. [xi] In 2008, HUD announced $20 million in new federal housing certificates for child welfare involved families and youth aging out of foster care [xii] .

Examples of state programs that have utilized the federal Family Unification Program resources included the Utah Family Reunification Project, which provided an array of intensive in-home services to parents of children in out-of-home care including food, housing and employment. Evaluation found that participating families were more likely to be reunified, were more successful in keeping their children in-home following reunification, and received reduced supervision by the child welfare agency. [xiii]

The Supportive Housing for Families Program of Connecticut is a collaborative public-private initiative that combines state funding with federal housing vouchers to provide supportive services and permanent affordable housing to families involved with the State child welfare system who are at risk of separation or who have been separated. Program components include permanent housing, home-based intensive case management (ICM), and services tailored to fit each family’s care plan, such as substance abuse treatment, parenting training, child care, transportation and educational and vocational training. ICM may last up to 2 years, and it serves as the single point of accountability for coordination of appropriate services to accomplish the family plan. The Department of Children and Families (DCF, the state child welfare agency) uses state dollars to fund services, and the Department of Social Services funds housing through federal vouchers. The Connection Inc., a non-profit human service and community development agency, operates the program and, along with nine additional community-based, non-profit agencies, provides ICM statewide. In the program’s first six years, 455 families were housed and over 1,130 children were reunified or preserved with their families. Seventy-three percent of families met the goals identified in their case plan and had their DCF case closed. [xiv]

Policy Options: States can authorize and fund supportive housing programs using one or both of the following eligibility criteria:

· Supportive housing programs are available to families with a child at risk of out-of-home placement due to inadequate housing.

· Supportive housing programs are available to reunify families with a child in foster care due to housing problems.