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Homeless Veterans

Supportive Services

Grantees are required to provide supportive services to eligible Veteransand their families. Required supportive services include outreach, case management, assistance in obtaining VA benefits, and assistance in accessing mainstream benefits. Grantees may also provide additional services such as temporary financial assistance with rent, utility, and child care expenses.


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    OUTREACH

    • Outreach is one of the most important functions of SSVF. Simply put, we cannot end or prevent homelessness among Veterans unless we enage those Veterans where they are. It is critically important that grantees and communities implement robust outreach efforts to ensure that every single homeless Veteran is engaged and provided options for permanent housing.

    • Outreach, Engagement, and Admission
    • Promising Practices and Common Issues (2012)
      This webinar covers the following: 1.) Outreach & Targeting; 2.) Documentation & Supportive Services; and 3.) Policies & Procedures.
    • Targeting, Screening and Assessment (2011)
      This presentation on screening and assessment reviews key aspects of Targeting, Screening and Assessment for new staff, and goes deeper into these critical components and services now that SSVF programs are operational.
    • Prevention Targeting 101 (2011)
      This brief is a concise "how-to" guide on how communities can begin or improve efforts to identify and effectively assist the households who are most likely to become homeless and serve them appropriately.
    • Sample Outreach Activity Log
      Grantee Example is an excel spreadsheet, created by one SSVF grantee, to assist staff with organizing and tracking any and all assertive outreach efforts related to SSVF. Consider adapting this tool to help organize and systematize your SSVF program's outreach strategy.

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    CASE MANAGEMENT

    • Case Management services play a key role in the SSVF Program. As a short-term, rapid intervention, SSVF does not seek to provide all of the long term or wrap around services a household may need to retain their housing. Rather, Case Managers act as the linkage point to the community based services that the Veterans need and desire in their efforts to maintaining housing. SSVF grantees must strike a delicate balance between providing services directly and playing that role as the link to community-based and mainstream resources.


    Prevention Resources
    Rapid Rehousing Resources
    • Service Directed Housing Interventions - SSVF Brief
    • Subsidies Rapid Re-Housing Module (2012)
      The National Alliance to End Homelessness's Center for Capacity Building has developed this module on rapid re-housing. The module covers how rapid re-housing programs can structure and fund rental subsidies for maximum effectiveness.
    • Rapid Re-Housing Barrier Triage Assessment Tool
      This is a guide, used nationally in multiple rapid re-housing programs, for exploring a household's potential barriers to accessing and then retaining rental housing. Review this tool when developing your SSVF program‘s general approach to assessing such "housing barriers."
    • Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) Conference Presentations
      This list contains conference presentations on RRH that were given by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Topics cover an array of subjects, including employment, domestic violence, sustaining HPRP rapid re-housing programs, unaccompanied youth, and effective community strategies.
    • Outcomes, Community Examples, and Evaluation Module (2012)
      This is the final of five short modules the National Alliance to End Homelessness's Center for Capacity Building has developed on rapid re-housing. This module reviews data and research on rapid re-housing, suggested outcomes, and examples from various communities that have implemented rapid re-housing.
    Housing First
    • Recording: SSVF Webinar Series: Housing First & SSVF (2012)
      PowerPoint: SSVF Webinar Series: Housing First & SSVF (2012)
      This recording/webinar reviews Housing First principles and approaches to understand ways in which Housing First strategies can be applied in SSVF programs to optimize resources and performance.
    • Housing First
      VA's policy for its homeless programs, is an evidence-based, low-barrier, supportive housing model that emphasizes permanent supportive housing to end homelessness. This approach provides Veterans who are experiencing homelessness with permanent housing as quickly as possible and supportive services as needed. There are no prerequisites for abstinence, psychiatric stability, or completion of treatment programs. Instead, permanent housing is provided as the initial service, followed by other supports based on the Veteran’s needs and preferences. The VA National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans has developed a series of videos to assist VA staff with implementing Housing First at their medical center and in their community.
    • Organizational Change: Adopting a Housing First Approach (2009)
      This resource explains how to shift away from shelter and transitional housing strategies and toward prevention and Housing First approaches.
    SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
    • SAMHSA Homelessness Prevention Panel
      Guiding Principles and Strategies (2011) This fact sheet covers 10 guiding principles on characteristics of successful prevention programs and how they should be implemented.
    • SAMHSA Veteran Homelessness Panel
      Guiding Principles and Strategies (2011) This fact sheet covers 12 guiding principles for successful programs for Veterans and how to best implement them.
    • SAMHSA Webinar on Homelessness Prevention (2011)
      This webinar offers an opportunity for providers and policymakers to hear about innovative homelessness prevention strategies and guiding principles articulated by the experts involved in the expert panel event.
    Resources For Victims of Domestic Violence
    • Domestic Violence Toolkit
      This toolkit covers community models, lessons learned, and background on serving the needs of domestic violence survivors.
    Samples and Examples
    • SSVF Housing Stability Plan Template is a structured template offered to SSVF grantees to help in the concrete development of Housing Stability Plans for each SSVF household. Similar to typical Individual Service Plans, used widely in human services case management practice, this form outlines consumer driven goals and objectives. Notably, it prioritizes the crisis resolution of housing instability in particular. Adapt this form to your organization’s SSVF assessments.
    • Sample Household Expenses Budget Form – Grantee Example is a detailed excel worksheet, developed by one SSVF program, to be used for predicting monthly household expenses in the context of both homelessness prevention or rapid re-housing. Create such a budget sheet for your SSVF participants to help structure conversations about anticipated costs and income gaps.
    • Sample Housing Stability Plan Form – Grantee Example is an example form, developed by one SSVF grantee, for writing out the action steps associated with each SSVF participant’s Housing Stability Plan. Consider adapting this sample form for documenting the key, concrete steps that will make up a SSVF participant’s Housing Stability Plan and the specifics associated with each step.
    • Sample Housing Barrier Assessment Form – Grantee Example is a tool, developed by one SSVF grantee, for meeting with each SSVF rapid re-housing participant to assess potential "housing barriers" that might limit their access to rental housing. Consider adapting this tool to your own SSVF program.
    • Sample Local Community Resource Checklist – Grantee Example is a simple chart, developed by one SSVF grantee, to organize efforts to connect SSVF participants with specific, local community resources. Consider editing this chart with the names of specific community resources, in your SSVF jurisdiction, that may be constructive in the lives of some of your SSVF participants.
    • Sample Housing Preferences Assessment Worksheet – Grantee Example is a simple form, developed by one SSVF grantee, for assisting rapid re-housing participants to identify and prioritize their preferences related to rental housing type and location. Consider adapting this worksheet to enhance your SSVF program’s approach.
    • Sample TFA Allocation Case Load Tracker is an excel spreadsheet developed by one SSVF grantee for tracking all TFA allocations on a monthly timetable. This tracker organizes TFA outlays for all SSVF participants in one spreadsheet for quick, at a glance, reviews and tabulations. Headers remind SSVF staff of the regulatory limits for each category of TFA. Consider such an allocation tracker for your internal purposes and compliance controls.
    • Sample Client Financial Assistance Tracker – Grantee Example is a tool developed by one SSVF grantee that is used to track all outlays of Temporary Financial Assistance related to a specific client. This tracker ensures that the maximum financial assistance is not exceeded over time.
    • Sample Staff Case File Organization Tool – Grantee Example is an internal file management tool, created by one SSVF grantee, to assist staff with organization of each individual SSVF case file. Consider adopting this tool’s structure of color coding sections of a case file to optimize organization of your SSVF paperwork.
    Credit and Personal Finances
    • How to get your Free Annual Credit Report is a centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports. Share this service with SSVF participants for whom their Housing Stability Plans call for overcoming any credit related barriers to housing access.
    • Fair Debt Collection Information is a tool created by the Federal Trade Commission to help all consumers understand debt collection, their related rights, and how to handle a false claim from a debt collector. Share this service with SSVF participants for whom their Housing Stability Plans call for overcoming any debt related barriers to housing access.
    • My Money Financial Literacy is an online toolkit with videos, podcasts, and guides on how to resolve credit history problems and how to save and manage money. Suggest these resources to SSVF participants for whom their Housing Stability Plans outline goals related to outstanding debt payment, balancing a checkbook, and overall control over personal finances that may be barriers to housing access.
    • FDIC Money Smart is a comprehensive platform of accessible tools designed to foster financial literacy in any household. This site offers a collection of resources that can be easily put to direct use by SSVF households with some staff assistance. Review these tools for those that match your SSVF households' needs for help with their budgets, savings, and financial planning.
    • Smart About Money Tools is a set of financial calculators designed to help households with calcuations for their financial savings, debt payoff, and emergency funds. Review those tools for those that match your SSVF households' needs for help with financial literacy.
    • Your Credit and the Housing Search is an informational handout that offers strategies for households seeking rental housing on how to overcome a negative credit history when looking for an apartment. Share this handout, or a modified version, with SSVF participants for whom their Housing Stability Plans call for overcoming this potential barrier to housing access.
    • Sample Household Expenses Budget Form – Grantee Example is a detailed excel worksheet, developed by one SSVF program, to be used for predicting monthly household expenses in the context of both homelessness prevention or rapid re-housing. Create such a budget sheet for your SSVF participants to help structure conversations about anticipated costs and income gaps.
    Fair Housing Issues
    • Are you a Victim of Housing Discrimination? is an informational handout designed to be shared with any household receiving public assistance for re-housing or subsidized housing. This handout educates households, who believe they have been discriminated against by landlords, on how to file an official complaint. Ensure that all SSVF staff know the basics of fair housing in this handout to ensure SSVF households will be helped to proactively avoid discrimination as a barrier to housing access.
    • Fair and Equal Housing Information is an online tool created by the Office of Fair and Equal Housing opportunity which administers and enforces federal laws pertaining to housing discrimination. Share this government site with any SSVF participant seeking general information on the relevance of fair housing in conjunction with their Housing Stability Plan. For how to file a complaint, find your own state’s fair housing commission.
    • Fair Housing Advocate Online is a national, searchable online tool that can be shared with SSVF households seeking information and help with preventing or reporting discrimination by landlords in conjunction with their Housing Stability Plans. This resource offers user friendly information for the general public with the option to search for local information by town and state.
    Housing Search
    • Housing Search Assistance Toolkit - This toolkit provides case managers, and housing advocates with a wide range of tools and resources to help homeless clients obtain and maintain permanent housing within the private rental market.
    • SSVF Housing Navigator is a research tool designed to help SSVF staff locate affordable housing options in their home communities. The tool categorizes all forms of affordable housing and offers links to help SSVF staff find property owners, subsidized housing of all kinds, and special population housing. Use the navigator to make an inventory of all potential housing options in your SSVF home community.
    • Housing Barriers Assessment Module (2012) This module on rapid re-housing was developed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness's Center for Capacity Building. The module discusses how to define rapid re-housing and how to develop a permanent housing barriers assessment process.
    • Standard Rental Application is a standard tenancy application that may be helpful in planning for SSVF housing search services. Share this sample application with SSVF participants as a first step in providing housing search services. Review the questions and prepare participants to compile all requested information including bank account numbers, contact information for references, and previous addresses.
    • Move-in Inspection Checklist is a tool that may be useful in the final steps of SSVF housing search services. It is a structured list created for tenants, in any publicly subsidized housing program, to be used before move in. Offer this checklist to SSVF participants visiting a prospective apartment to help them notice and document problems with the unit at the outset of their tenancy. This checklist may help with negotiating down the price of rent.
    • What Does My Lease Say? is a tool that may be useful in providing SSVF housing search services. It provides SSVF participants with insights to understanding the language of their lease. Note that many housing search providers find this to be an important exercise. Use this tool to help SSVF participants entering into a new lease to understand, in their own words, the specifics of this important contract.
    • Housing Applications Tracking Log is a sample template that may be helpful in managing SSVF housing search services. The log was developed for homeless service programs that assist households seeking affordable and subsidized programs.
    • Local Property Information Template is a form that may be helpful in managing SSVF housing search services. It is designed to globally inventory a local affordable housing market and its subsidized housing programs. Before creating your own such inventory, check to see if your community already has an existing database that serves this purpose.
    • Support Services for Veterans Families Trainer's Guide: Rent Burden—How High is Too High? What is a "Reasonable" Housing Plan Goal? (2014) This document provides a framework for delivering training around rent burden.
    • Fair Market Rent Reference is the U.S. Department of HUD’s compilation of local fair market rent (FMR) standards – specific to rental unit size and geographic regions of every state. Consult these FMRs to assess the rents being charged for units under consideration for an investment of SSVF temporary financial assistance. In addition, help all SSVF staff become familiar with the FMRs for the regions served by your SSVF program.
    • Renting with Pets is a handout for pet owners seeking rental housing who are at risk of losing their pet in the impending move. This site, created by the Humane Society, offers strategies for finding rental units that allow pets and working with new landlords to negotiate keeping a pet in the home. Suggest this informational website to any SSVF participant for whom their Housing Stability Plans call for overcoming “housing barriers” associated with pet ownership.
    • Shared Housing - SSVF Brief
    Housing Stability Plan
    Opening Doors - Fact Sheets
    • Opening Doors: Chronic Homelessness (2010) This fact sheet summarizes the three steps for ending chronic homelessness laid out in the Federal Strategic Plan, including: 1.) Provide permanent supportive housing; 2.) Reduce financial vulnerability; and 3.) Improve health and housing stability.
    • Opening Doors: Homelessness Among Families (2010) This fact sheet summarizes the four steps for ending family homelessness laid out in the Federal Strategic Plan, including: 1.) Provide affordable housing; 2.) Increase meaningful and sustainable employment; 3.) Reduce financial vulnerability; and 4.) Transformed homeless crisis response system.
    • Opening Doors: Homelessness Among Veterans (2010) This fact sheet summarizes the five steps for ending veteran homelessness laid out in the Federal Strategic Plan, including: 1.) Provide affordable housing; 2.) Provide permanent supportive housing; 3.) Increase meaningful and sustainable employment; 4.) Reduce financial vulnerability; and 5.) Transformed homeless crisis response system.
    • Opening Doors: Preventing Homelessness (2010) This fact sheet summarizes the five steps for preventing homelessness laid out in the Federal Strategic Plan, including: 1.) Increased leadership, collaboration, and civic engagement; 2.) Increased access to stable and affordable housing; 3.) Increased economic security; 4.) Improved health and stability; and 5.) Transformed homeless crisis response system.
    Other
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    CONNECTION TO VA RESOURCES

    • As part of participant intake, the grantee should determine whether the participant household is already receiving services from VA. If the participant is already receiving services, the grantee's assessment should focus on what additional services the participant may need, want and be eligible for, to refer the participant to the appropriate VA office for assistance. If the participant is not already receiving services from VA, the grantee should make the participant aware of the services for which he/she may be eligible and offer to refer the participant to the nearest VA facility.The information on this page provides providers with information on the roles of the SSVF Regional Coordinators, the SSVF grantee, the VA Medical Center Points of Contact (POCs), and other VA programs.

    HUD-VASH
    GPD
    VA Benefits
    • SSVF VAMC Point-of-Contact Call - February 18, 2014
    • VA Healthcare Centers is an essential website to be used by SSVF case managers for connecting SSVF participants with local Veterans' healthcare and other co-located Veteran Administration (VA) supportive services. Use the locations tab on this website's menu to identify your closest VA Healthcare Center and schedule a visit to learn about all programs available to support SSVF participants.
    • The Vet Centers is a key website to be used by SSVF case managers for connecting SSVF participants, when in need, with local, individual and family mental health counseling provided by local Vet Centers. Use this website to map the location of your nearest Vet Center counseling services.
    • Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
    • Veteran Benefit Administration is a key website to be used by SSVF case managers for connecting SSVF participants, when eligible, with Veteran's financial benefits. Use the locations tab on this website’s menu to identify your SSVF program's closest regional office for the Veteran Benefit Administration (VBA) and contact this office’s designated liaison to Veterans who are homeless.
    • Veterans E-benefit Portal is an online central location for Veterans, service members, and their families to research, find, access, and, manage their benefits and personal information. Open and use this portal in interactions with SSVF participants and navigate the portal to become better acquainted with Veteran benefits and systems.
    • The Health Center Program (2015) - This recording provides an overview of the Health Center Program, which is supported and administered through the Bureau of Primary Health (BPHC). BPHC-supported health centers deliver comprehensive, high-quality preventive and primary health care to patients regardless of their ability to pay, to include veterans and their families. Health centers have become the essential primary care medical home for millions of Americans including some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.
    • www.bass4vets.org In 38 selected cities, the Benefits Assistance and Support System (BASS), will provide Veterans with information on mainstream benefits available through national programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, Medicaid, Medicare, various Social Security programs, the Child Health Insurance program, as well as locally administered legal aid, credit counseling, vocational, income, and benefits assistance including the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.
    • VA's Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration (VHPD) and Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (HPACT) (2013)
    • Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams (H-PACT) (2013)
    Other VA Resources
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    CONNECTION TO MAINSTREAM RESOURCES

    • As part of participant intake, the grantee should determine whether the participant household is already receiving non-VA Mainstream benefits. If the participant is already receiving services, the grantee’s assessment should focus on what additional services the participant may need, want and be eligible for, to refer the participant to the appropriate mainstream benefit office for assistance.The information on this page provides providers with information on accessing mainstream benefits and services for Veteran households.

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    ENHANCED SERVICES

    • SSVF is not only about the basic, required services of the program. Grantees should be highly focused on the individual service needs of each individual Veteran household. This page discusses resources and practices for "enhanced" or non-mandatory SSVF services. The topics/issues below are strongly recommended service areas for SSVF grantees to consider as part of their SSVF programs. Some of these services may also be delivered by community partners and subcontractors.

    Tempory Financial Assistance
    • Sample TFA Allocation Case Load Tracker is an excel spreadsheet developed by one SSVF grantee for tracking all TFA allocations on a monthly timetable. This tracker organizes TFA outlays for all SSVF participants in one spreadsheet for quick, at a glance, reviews and tabulations. Headers remind SSVF staff of the regulatory limits for each category of TFA. Consider such an allocation tracker for your internal purposes and compliance controls.
    • Sample Client Financial Assistance Tracker – Grantee Example is a tool developed by one SSVF grantee that is used to track all outlays of Temporary Financial Assistance related to a specific client. This tracker ensures that the maximum financial assistance is not exceeded over time.
    • SSVF Financial Assistance (2011)
      This webinar on financial assistance covers requirements for providing financial assistance, as well as eligible and ineligible types.
    Legal Services
    Employment Services

     

      Landlord Supports
      • Sample Spreadsheet to Manage Landlord Information – Grantee Example is an excel spreadsheet created by one SSVF grantee to input key information regarding landlords and property management companies that are participating in SSVF.
      • Apartment Comparison Checklist is a tool that may be useful in providing SSVF housing search services. It is designed for households, participating in housing search assistance, to compare the merits and drawback of multiple rental units. The checklist will also remind households to ask a landlord specific questions about the terms and conditions of the lease. Offer this checklist to SSVF participants who are visiting potential rental units.
      • Client Telephone Guide is a tool that may be useful in providing SSVF housing search services. It is a user friendly guide with recommendations for how to talk to prospective landlords including tips to prepare for such a call as well as a script to use in responding to landlords’ questions. Share this guide with SSVF rapid re-housing participants to help them proactively avoid being screened out as prospective tenants over the telephone.
      • Landlord-Tenant-Case Manager Communication Agreement is a tool that may be useful in providing case management services to prevent homelessness. This agreement is designed to promote clear communication between a landlord, tenant, and helping professional, such as an SSVF case manager, before instability issues lead to eviction.
      • Tips for Working with Landlords is a strategy list, for recruiting and cultivating relationships with landlords, that was developed for any program assisting homeless households with housing search in the private rental market. Offer these tips to your SSVF staff on how to approach prospective landlords for SSVF and cultivate constructive relationships with them.
      • Housing Search, Location and Landlords Module (2012)
        The National Alliance to End Homelessness's Center for Capacity Building has developed this module on rapid re-housing. The module discusses how to locate housing by developing and maintaining landlord relationships.
      • Landlord Benefits Checklist is a tool designed to be used with landlords in the private rental market when performing housing search. Consider using this checklist as a marketing tool to advertise your SSVF program and its merits to potential landlords. SSVF staff may also use this tool to produce talking points for meetings with landlords or property management companies.
      • Landlord Marketing Letter is a sample letter designed for housing search workers to be used in conjunction with the Landlord Benefits Checklist. This marketing letter can be issued periodically to a mailing list of prospective landlords and property management companies in a targeted community. Consider integrating a version letter into a multi-faceted approach to engaging a network of property owners in your SSVF jurisdiction.
      • SSVF Program LAUNCH: Landlord Support (2013)
        This recording discusses the need for landlord supports and how best to cultivate this relationship.
      Other