The Road Home

We are happy to be working with The Road Home as our charity of the month. The Road Home is a private non-profit social services agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front. The Road Home provides multiple services to help people overcome homelessness.

This year we have made a donation to the housing programs that The Road Home offers. Here are the programs and a little info about what each one does.

The Road Home delivers housing services to households using Progressive Engagement within Housing First. Progressive Engagement is the practice of helping households end their homelessness as rapidly as possible, despite barriers, with minimal financial and support resources; more supports are applied to those households who struggle to stabilize in housing. Rapid Rehousing is considered a light-touch intervention, while Permanent Supportive Housing is reserved for the most vulnerable households. Housing First prioritizes helping people experiencing homelessness locate and move in to housing, then providing individualized and voluntary supportive services as needed. This approach emphasizes participant choice in both housing selection and in service participation.

Rapid Rehousing Program for Families

Approximately 50% of families we serve use emergency shelter services for a very short period and do not return to shelter. Every family staying in our housing-focused shelter is assisted in creating a Housing Plan, which includes a targeted housing date. Support to meet this housing date includes: creation of a housing plan, housing location assistance, employment and benefit assistance through Department of Workforce Services and housing placement case management supports. Families that are unable to resolve their homelessness without financial support may be prioritized for Rapid Re-housing (RRH) financial assistance. Once in housing, families receive case management supports focused on stabilizing in housing. Each month of the program, Case Managers assess families for housing stability and connect households to supports that will bolster that stability. If families need assistance to stabilize beyond an initial small package of assistance, we may extend our support from month to month. An extension of support is determined by whether or not the family will become homeless the following month without our assistance. We expect that every family will be successful with RRH supports. Since 2009 we have served over 3,000 households with the Rapid Rehousing and Progressive Engagement model.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (Rapid Rehousing for Veterans)

In 2012, The Road Home was awarded a Supportive Services for Veteran Families grant. Since then, our grant award doubled, and we have worked in a community collaboration to end homelessness for all Veterans. RRH packages are offered to individuals and families with heads of households that have Veteran status. As with RRH for families, all Veteran households are offered the same package of assistance: barrier debt elimination, a deposit, pro-rate, up to nine months of rental assistance and case management. As part of a community wide partnership including outreach agencies, other shelter providers, public housing authorities and resources from Department of Veteran Affairs, we know we will realize our goal to eliminate homelessness for Veterans.

Housing Not Jail; Pay For Success

Housing Not Jail is a new Pay for Success model program aimed at serving single adults that are persistently homeless (90-364 days of homelessness). The program launched in January 2017 and will conclude in 2022. Housing Not Jail is the first randomized control trial for Rapid Rehousing for individuals experiencing persistent homelessness in the world. The data produced by the project will inform housing models and programs everywhere. Individuals who meet the persistently homeless criteria are randomly selected to participate in the program and receive a Rapid Rehousing package of support: barrier debt elimination, security deposit and three to nine months of rental assistance and case management. This program has unique enhancements, such as behavioral health services and employment support, and is addressing a long-standing need in our community to assist individuals that do not have a history of chronic homelessness.

To learn more about Rapid Rehousing:

Click here to see the video about why Rapid Rehousing Works, created by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Click here to see the infographic, created by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on the components of a successful Rapid Rehousing program.