Supported Housing
Coast Supported Housing Programs supports people with serious and persistent mental illness to find and retain affordable housing, currently we are supporting over 700 tenants develop strengths through self-directed explorations in life skills, work, educational and socialization programs, based on a Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) and recovery model. These programs are congruent with best practices in housing services delivery and promote recovery for tenants of all cultural backgrounds.
The goals of Coast Supported Housing is to provide long term safe, appropriate, affordable and secure accommodation that provides mental health services as well as housing to the program participants. The continued application of the PSR principles and individual supports and services provided by supportive housing staff enables participants to learn, re-learn and maintain the daily living skills necessary for successful integrated living in the community. This process is effectively complimented by working cooperatively and collaboratively with other service providers to ensure continuity of care in an integrated and consistent manner.
By 2012 the number of supported housing units will increase to around 850 units with the addition of Pender Apartments and Timber Grove apartments. Housing supports in these buildings will vary depending on the needs of the tenants to ensure housing is offered through a range of supports
Supported housing has been running a program for over 10 years with a great record of success. The program is the
However in so many cases, staying at home requires many times a little bit more to succeed in daily life. The community kitchen program fit quite well within the mandate of Supported Housing. Once a month, staff and tenants from the Supported Housing program meet to plan a menu for preparation the following week. The idea is to prepare a meal we will eat together on that day plus have enough take home for one or two days. Not only the planning and cooking itself makes this program successful, but also the camaraderie between the tenants and staff, the practical skills involved in the buying, cooking and the learning of kitchen related skills.
In this even there is a lot of respect of other people ideas, mutual support in conversation and encouragement sharing how each person deals with their own challenges. This program certainly develops the strengths of each individual lives, work and socialization there is fantastic diverse cultural cooperation as we also have tenants from Spanish, Chinese and other ethnic backgrounds working together.
In the apartment program many of our long term tenants continue to age in place, staff has had to adapt to meet the changing needs of the most elderly residents in our buildings. An example of this is one of tenants who is 84 years old and have live with us since 1974 recently became significantly ill due to mental and physical health issues, he was however unwilling to move into extended care therefore Supported Housing staff coordinated a plan that involved refurbishing his apartment, introduction of daily homemaking service, meals on wheels, regular visits to the bank and medical services appointments as well as frequent visits by a mental health worker. This tenant has continued to regained his strength and mental health and is looking forward to celebrating his 40th birthday in February in our housing
Supportive Housing future objectives are to ensure maximum utilization of housing units measured by the number of units occupied compared with the total number of units (maximum utilization); to ensure accessibility of Coast housing to consumers measured by the number of clients who have been rejected to the program compared to the number of client's interviewed for the program (Accessibility); to assist tenants to achieve their goals and maintain independent living measure by the number of tenants who have achieved at least one specified goal compared to the number of tenants in the program (Goal Achievement); to reduce the number of incidents of decomposition, re-hospitalization and use of emergency services by Coast tenants measured by the number of hospitalizations and Venture admissions compared to the total number of tenants in the program (Stabilization); to provide services that improve Coast tenants' life satisfaction measured by the number of the satisfied clients compared to the total number of clients purveyed on an annual basis (Increased Life Satisfaction); to increase housing stability and tenure for the participants following their entry to the program measured by the number of tenants who lost their housing compared to the total number of participants (Increased Tenure); finally, to provide safe, appropriate and secure accommodation measured by a number of violent incident reports (Safe Environment).
These measurements are evidenced in the balanced scorecards which are used to ensure that service provision is adequate, and on a self-improving trajectory at all times. Scorecards track the indicated that Supported Housing used to determine quality assurance through processes such as: balanced budget, client satisfaction, hospitalizations, staff satisfaction, staff evaluations, staff development, specific timelines for referral placements, critical incident reporting, and tenant contacts.