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Our Work Housing is Health Care

Developing permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless with complex medical needs.

We help communities create partnerships to develop permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless and frequently use emergency services.

Roughly 5% of patients account for 50% of health care costs. These patients’ high costs come from frequent emergency room visits and hospital stays. Some have untreated mental illnesses or substance use disorders, and regular interactions with law enforcement are also common. Often, these people are homeless or don’t have stable housing, making effective treatment and recovery more complicated.

“Permanent supportive housing” links housing with on-site services like tenancy support, employment assistance, and medical and behavioral health. It is a cost-effective way to improve health outcomes and address problems that contribute to homelessness.

Visit our Grant Library to learn more about the projects we support.

Grant Library

Spotlight

Blue Heron, Missoula

After several years of coalition building and planning, the Blue Heron apartments opened in September 2023.

The 30-unit Permanent Supportive Housing project was developed in partnership with Homeword and Blueline Development on land donated by Missoula County. Rental subsidies that allow tenants to spend no more than 30% of their income toward rent are provided by the Missoula Housing Authority. Medical and behavioral health services are provided by the Federally Qualified Health Center, Partnership Health Center, and the Poverello Center, a local emergency shelter provider, provides evening and weekend support.

Community partners provide other supportive services to meet the needs of tenants, including transportation and food assistance. Many residents have been without a home for over a decade, and the transformative impacts of stable housing have been remarkable.

Our Approach: FUSE

We collaborate with the Corporation for Supportive Housing, which uses its FUSE (Frequent Users System Engagement) approach to identify how people are currently cycling through homelessness, emergency departments, the carceral system, and other emergency services to identify people who would most benefit from a supportive housing intervention. Through this initiative, we work with communities to identify FUSE customers, develop partnerships and data sharing, and create solutions to connect people to services, secure housing, and keep people housed.

Our Support

In this initiative, we support a limited number of technical assistance, feasibility, service package sustainability, and development grants for communities interested in creating supportive housing projects. All funding under this initiative is by invitation only.

Contact

If you have a question about this initiative, please email our program team.