New Supportive Housing Initiative

New Supportive Housing Initiative

November 15, 2012

Dear ,

I am excited to announce a new initiative! Medica and Hearth Connection are launching the "Medica Supportive Housing" initiative to support 85 households.

This fall, Medica and Hearth Connection will address the housing, social service, and medical needs of health system clients who are experiencing long-term homelessness and chronic illness or disabilities. This initiative will offer participants supportive housing designed to achieve housing stability, improved well-being, and decreased reliance on emergency and inpatient medical care.

This initiative builds upon the premiere work of Hearth Connection's Hospital-to-Home pilots delivered by Guild Incorporated at Regions Hospital and by Resources Inc. at Hennepin County Medical Center. Participants in the Medica Supportive Housing Initiative will be selected from the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, and similar initiatives will be explored in other regions of the state.

Medica will refer eligible participants and offer health care coordination services and data analysis on medical claims. The partners anticipate that participants in the Medica Supportive Housing project will include a cross section of the following characteristics:

Very low-income;
Have a chronic health condition (e.g., chronic illnesses, disabilities, physical or behavioral health conditions or severe functional impediments) that require restorative, palliative and curative interventions in community-based settings;
Are homeless or in persistent housing crisis;
Are high utilizers (frequent users) of crisis health services, hospital care, emergency room services, or inpatient treatment centers;
Are either single adults, parents with children, or unaccompanied homeless youth; and
Are individuals who require support to maintain stable housing and achieve health or functional recovery.

Participants will be offered accessed to intensive supportive services and affordable housing. Hearth Connection's service model is utilized across our spectrum of partnering community-based agencies. Essential components of this service approach are listed below; click here to learn more.

Intensive Case Management
Housing First
Harm Reduction
Trauma-Informed Services
Mobile Collaborative Teams

Evaluation of this initiative will answer the following questions:

What outcomes in housing stabilization, improved well being, and health care service utilization are achieved when participants are offered access to supportive housing?
What is the impact on participants in the areas of health care utilization and cost that occurs through this intervention service model?
Can this model be replicated in multiple areas of the state?

Hearth Connection anticipates that the first participants will be enrolled in December of 2012 and that the initiative will be at full capacity by the spring of 2013. This is a three year initiative that has the potential to be renewed up to a total of seven years. During this period, Medica and Hearth Connection will track client-centered outcomes and offer annual progress reports.

Hearth Connection is excited to partner with Medica and looks forward to exploring the results of the Medica Supportive Housing initiative!

Hearth Connection's Role:

Our role as an intermediary is to absorb complexity, secure financing, address system changes, and collect and report data related to ending homelessness. Our role includes:

Securing and distributing funding to cover supportive services to project participants;
Securing and distributing funding for rental assistance, tenancy support and housing stability;
Offering financial oversight and programmatic administration of the project;
Implementing orientation and training opportunities for case managers;
Maintaining Co-Pilot database (including routine maintenance and coding);
Collecting and analyzing data;
Ensuring fidelity to Hearth Connection's service model and performing audits of subcontracted agencies.

Community-Based Provider's Roles:

Hearth Connection anticipates that it will sub-contract with some of our current service providers in the Twin Cities metropolitan region.

One of the challenges with this project is that many participants will be eligible to receive Adult Mental Health-Targeted Case Management Services (TCM), and all supportive service providers must have the capacity to bill for TCM services. Consequently, Hearth Connection is not able to contract with all of our current regional project partners.

The providers will offer much of the same services delivered through the existing regional collaboratives:

Offer participants intensive case management services;
Engage and work with participants to achieve results in rapid access to affordable housing; improved functioning, well-being, and safety; and lower utilization of crisis, emergency health treatment;
Commitment to the collection and entry of data into Co-Pilot;
Fidelity to Hearth Connection's service model including the strengths-based, consumer-focused Housing First model, focusing on building trust, non-judgmental engagement, using flexibility, creativity and perseverance, Harm Reduction, being trauma-informed and culturally-competent and emphasizing consumer choice.

Graphic - How we work together

graphic - how we work together

Next Steps:

Kelby Grovender, Director of Programs, and Karen Vnuk, Director of Finance and Administration, will be reaching out to selected agencies to establish subcontract agreements. Medica will begin to refer potential participants in November, and Hearth Connection will work with our partners to begin enrolling the initial participants in December.

We remain committed to our mission to end long-term homelessness in Minnesota.

Questions or requests for information can be directed to either:

Kelby Grovender

Director of Programs

Hearth Connection

(651) 645-0676 (ext 104)

kelby@hearthconnection.org or

Rich Hooks Wayman

Executive Director

Hearth Connection

2446 University Avenue West, Suite 150

Saint Paul, MN 55114