1. INTRODUCTION

The Housing Resource Center (HRC) programs of the Columbus community evolved out of the Community Shelter Board’s mission to assist families and individuals in Central Ohio to resolve their housing crisis. These programs leverage the services available through emergency shelter and facilitate linkages with permanent housing resources.

Each year the Community Shelter Board (CSB) conducts an evaluation of these programs. The 2001 Housing Resource Center Evaluation examines the program performance for the six-month period of July 1, 2000 to December 31, 2000 (unless otherwise noted). To assess performance, information from CSB’s Management Information System and financial records were used.

This year several new components were added to the evaluation to further assess each program, as well as the Housing Resource Center initiative as a whole (see Section 7). Added components include provider surveys to determine day-to-day program operations and program strengths and weaknesses; partner surveys to assess collaborative efforts; case file reviews to identify barriers to housing and services provided to consumers; and consumer focus groups to identify consumer needs and experiences in these programs.

Additionally, this year an Ad Hoc Evaluation Committee was created. This committee was comprised of local experts in the fields of social work, strategic planning, and evaluation. This committee reviewed a draft version of the evaluation and made program and system-level recommendations for change based on its findings.

PHILISOPHICAL OVERVIEW OF THE HOUSING RESOURCE CENTER

In August 1996, the Community Shelter Board developed the following mission statement and list of objectives for the Housing Resource Center:

Mission: The Housing Resource Center will assist and empower people to avoid or resolve housing crisis in order to maintain permanent housing. This mission is supported by six objectives.

Objective 1: To provide services that are flexible and innovative to meet the individual housing needs of persons being served.

1. Redefine the expectations of CSB’s role in the implementation and planning of the programs.

2. Develop program services through which people are assisted in the most flexible manner.

3. Broaden the focus of HRC to include the provision of non-monetary interventions such as information referral, support resources, education, skill-building, and coordination with Legal Aid.

4. To provide a variety of follow-up services so that safe and stable housing is maintained.

5. CSB, its partner agencies, and the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless’ Housing Committee should maintain their involvement in CMHA policy and program changes.

Objective 2: To provide whatever information, support, and resources that are necessary to help people who are at-risk of becoming homeless resolve their housing crisis.

Objective 3: To provide a variety of resources, including rental assistance, in order to assist people currently experiencing homelessness locate and maintain appropriate housing.

Objective 4: To improve linkages, networking, and staff training among CSB partner agencies to provide better and more coordinated services to people in a housing crisis.

1. Improve staff training and communication among HRC program staff by hosting training sessions on the plans, services, and eligibility requirements for the Transition, Prevention, and other information programs.

2. Coordinate monthly meetings so agencies can work on ways to improve linkages and networking among community providers.

Objective 5: To provide agencies with housing information resources necessary to assist and empower people in housing crisis.

Objective 6: To evaluate CSB’s Housing Resource Center’s components to ensure their respective objectives and overall mission of the HRC program are achieved.

The mission statement and objectives of the Housing Resource Center have not been reviewed since their development in August 1996. Since then, however, changes have occurred in the homeless population, as well as the Housing Resource Center programs themselves. For example, the Family Housing Collaborative was added to the Center in 1999; other programs have gone through a series of changes in their providers; and the day-to-day operations of many of these programs have evolved. This evaluation seeks, in part, to determine if each of the current components of the Housing Resource Center are in agreement with this mission statement and objectives, and if its mission statement and objectives should be updated to reflect current needs and program design.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Based on this mission statement and objectives, CSB’s Housing Resource Center is a five-component program that assists families and individuals who are homeless or precariously housed to locate and maintain housing. These five components are: the Homelessness Prevention program, Housing Resource Specialist, Family Housing Collaborative, the Transition Assistance program, and the Housing Resource Center Database.

Through these components, families and individuals receive assistance at all points of their housing crisis. The HRC’s goals are achieved through the provision of prevention, transition, direct housing, and information services that provide a family or individual with relocation services, referrals, tenant education, and short-term financial rental assistance.

1. Homeless Prevention Program – This program reduces the number of persons needing shelter by preventing families and individuals from becoming homeless. This is achieved through relocation, case management, service linkages, mediation services, and short-term financial assistance for rent, mortgage, or utilities. The Homelessness Prevention program is administered by Lutheran Social Services, which collaborates with 5 community-based offices to implement the program.

2. Housing Resource Specialist (HRS) – This program helps families and individuals receiving shelter services secure and maintain permanent housing by providing housing counseling, referrals for financial assistance and supportive services, and linkages to neighborhood resources. Additionally, this program offers post-placement and follow-up services to prevent households from re-entering the shelter system. Currently, CSB contracts with six service providers who offer HRS services. These providers are: Community Refugee and Immigration Services, Faith Mission, Friends of the Homeless, Lutheran Social Services, Volunteers of America, and the YWCA.

3. Family Housing Collaborative (FHC) – This program quickly moves families out of the emergency shelter system and into permanent housing throughout the Columbus community. FHC works closely with families to negotiate leases, provide linkages to neighborhood-based services, and assists with securing stable employment. Additionally, this program helps meet the demand for emergency shelter services by decreasing the length of time families stay in the shelter system; increasing permanent housing outcomes; and breaking the cycle of homelessness. Lutheran Social Services is the fiscal coordinator for this program, while Catholic Social Services, Jewish Family Services, and the Salvation Army provide case management services.

4. Transition Assistance Program – This program reintegrates families and individuals who are currently homeless into the community. This is achieved through the provision of short-term rental assistance, utility assistance, and other client assistance. The Transition Assistance program is administered by Friends of the Homeless. Staff of this program work closely with the Housing Resource Specialists and other shelter staff who provide housing planning, case management, and budgeting services that enable families and individual to secure housing.

5. Housing Resource Center Database – This program provides families and individuals with access to affordable, safe, and decent housing options via an interactive database that lists rental availability in Columbus and Franklin County. The HRC Database is administered by the YWCA.

REPORT OVERVIEW

The 2001 Housing Resource Center Evaluation assesses the performance of the programs that comprise the Housing Resource Center. These programs include Prevention, Housing Resource Specialist, Family Housing Collaborative, Transition, and the Housing Resource Center Database. The remainder of this evaluation report is organized in the following manner:

§ Each of the above-mentioned programs is discussed in Sections 2-6, respectively. Each discussion includes a description of the program, client demographics, a summary of consumer feedback, and a summary of performance outcomes.

§ Following Section 3 (Housing Resource Specialist) and Section 4 (Family Housing Collaborative) are sub-sections that evaluate each of the individual agencies that operate these programs. Each sub-section includes a description of the agency, client demographics, key findings from case file reviews, community collaborations, and a summary of performance outcomes.

§ The report concludes with an analysis of the Housing Resource Center initiative as a whole and system-level recommendations.

§ Following this conclusion are three Appendices. Appendix A contains detailed findings from the consumer focus groups that were conducted for this evaluation. Appendix B contains detailed findings from the case file reviews that were conducted for this evaluation. Appendix C contains detailed findings from provider surveys that were conducted for this evaluation.

Glossary of Terms

The following is a list of terms and their definitions as utilized in this evaluation:

Housing Retention - This term indicates the percentage of individuals that maintain their housing after a successful housing outcome. Housing retention is monitored by measuring recidivism.

Housing Stability – This terms indicates the average length of stay that individuals remain in housing.

Successful Housing Outcome – Successful housing outcomes include exits or termination of services when either permanent or transitional housing has been achieved.

Recidivism – In monitoring program effectiveness, recidivism is defined, unless otherwise noted, as the number of clients who receive a successful outcome and return to shelter within two weeks to three months after successfully exiting the program.

RMU – For the homeless prevention and transition programs, rent, mortgage, and utility (RMU) payments are those provided to client to assist in obtaining housing by paying deposits, rent, utility payments or arrearages. CSB measures RMU to monitor consistency of financial administration as stated in provider contracts.

2. HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION PROGRAM

The Community Shelter Board developed a Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) in 1992 as part of its Emergency Shelter Bed Strategy. After the pilot year, HPP was continued as a permanent program. The HPP originally included two components, Crisis Transition and Homeless Prevention. In 1996, the HPP program evolved into the Housing Resource Center with two additional service components (Housing Resource Specialist and the HRC Database).

Program Description

The majority of individual who access this program are referred through family, friends, religious organizations, and other non-institutional, informal connections. Clients access the program via telephone and an initial interview is conducted to examine potential options and gather basic information. After an initial screening, LSS or HPP satellite staff then schedules an appointment to discuss the program in detail and determine client eligibility. Most appointments occur within a one-to-three-week time frame, with some clients meeting as quickly as the same day. Interviews are conducted at the LSS office or any of the HPP satellite partner’s offices. Satellite partners include Central Community House, CMACAO, Gladden Community House, Legal Aid Society, and Godman Guild Association.

To be eligible for financial resources, clients must earn less than 45% of the Area Median Income[1]; and have verifiable income, with household expenses not exceeding 50% of income for families and 45% of income for single individuals. HPP may serve households with incomes up to 80% of the Area Median Income in extenuating circumstances. Additionally, clients must be willing to partner with HPP and actively work towards housing stability. One eligibility is determined, clients and staff develop a short-term action plan to work towards maintaining permanent housing. Through HPP, clients receive case management services, mediation services, housing placement assistance, budgeting counseling, and financial assistance, if necessary.

HPP staff also assists clients in accessing other possible sources for financial assistance. Additionally, clients are referred to other community-based service providers to help maintain their housing. These include Legal Aid, COMPASS, JOIN, Salvation Army and the Prevention, Retention, and Contingency (PRC) program at the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services (FCDJFS). Follow-up services are provided to clients on a case-by-case basis.

The total cost of this program is $366,649 for the period 7/1/00 – 6/30/01. CSB invests $364,294 in the program. LSS is contracted to allocate $270,248 in RMU assistance ($135,124 per six-month evaluation period). From 7/1/00 to 12/31/00, the HPP program expended $113,053 in RMU assistance.

Population Served

The following chart details the demographics for those served in this program:

	7/1/99 to 12/31/99	01/01/00 to 6/30/00	Evaluation Period 7/1/00 to 12/31/00
Individuals	35%	41%	32% (n=223)
Families	65%	59%	68% (n=466)
Median Age	34	37	36
Race
African American	53%	53%	40% (n=277)
White	42%	43%	29% (n=200)
Hispanic	1%	1%	1% (n=7)
Native American	1%	1%	0%
Unknown/Other	2%	2%	29% (n=201)[2]
Education > HS Diploma	59%	62%	47% (n=327)
Monthly Mean Income	$1,144	$1,158	$1,185

Additionally, according to a review of 25 cases that were active during the time period 7/1/00 to 6/30/01, families and individuals served in this program reported the following reasons for their housing crisis[3]:

Reasons	% of Families and Individuals
Loss of Income	72% (n=18)
Inadequate Income	12% (n=3)
Arrested/Went to Jail	12% (n=3)
Domestic Violence/Relationship Problems	8% (n=2)
Physical Health Problems	4% (n=1)

These families received the following services:

Services Provided	% of Families and Individuals
Financial Assistance	84% (n=21)
Budgeting	64% (n=16)
Assistance with Benefits	40% (n=10)
Landlord Mediation	28% (n=7)
Housing Referrals	20% (n=5)
Employment Referrals	8% (n=2)
Referrals for Education	4% (n=1)
Tenant’s Rights Information	4% (n=1)

COLLABORATIONS

LSS currently collaborates with five community organizations at seven sites to provide prevention assistance. LSS coordinates bi-weekly meetings with its satellite partners to ensure consistency in the budget, data collection, and application process. As the coordinator of FEMA and AEA, LSS works to maintain strong linkages with comm

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section 4.3: Jewish Family Services 41

Section 4.4: Salvation Army 44

Section 5: Friends of the Homeless Transition Assistance 47