The Housing First Approach:
Housing First is a proven approach in which all people experiencing homelessness are believed to be housing ready and are provided with permanent housing immediately and with few to no preconditions, behavioral contingencies, or barriers. The Housing First approach should start where the program participant is and should ensure that individuals and families are provided with housing choices and with access to voluntary supportive services that are tailored to the unique needs of the individuals being served. Adopting a Housing First approach serves those most vulnerable within our communities and allows opportunities for landlords, providers and individuals to create barrier-free and diverse communities for all people to safely live within their homes, realize goals, achieve housing stability and work towards wellness.
Service Provider Tip #1:
Plan on going with your client when they sign their leases to better assist them in understanding their tenant responsibilities, commitments and rights. Some of our SRN waitlist applicants may have never held a lease in their name before and may be intimidated by the language of the document. Be available to answer leasing questions, contract language questions and to advocate on behalf of your client if there is something that they don't understand or are uncomfortable with.
Service Provider Tip #2:
Please make sure that your client gets a copy of their lease, Resident Handbook and understands the procedures, requirements and information contained in both. Some of our waitlist applicants have not rented an apartment, housing unit or home in a very long time. Therefore, you should plan on helping them familiarize themselves with not only their responsibilities as tenants, but also the property's responsibility to them. Individuals moving into a new home need to know who to contact if there are maintenance issues within their apartment, under what circumstances a landlord may enter their unit and what privileges they have within the unit. For example, familiarize yourself and your client with the handbook so that they know if and how they may decorate, hang pictures or paint the unit. Clients should also be familiar with other policies such as guest rules and parking privileges. Don't hesitate to ask the landlord about any policy definitions or statements that you or your client don't understand.
ATTENTION: Oak Park Housing Authority Non Elderly Disabled (NED) Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) are still available!!! Please email Lore.Baker@illinois.gov or Alexis.DeWeese@illinois.gov for an application or more information! Please note that the OPHA NED Vouchers are for those institutionalized individuals that would like to transitions from a nursing facility to the Oak Park community. Nursing facility residents do not have to be currently residing in Oak Park to take advantage of the offer.
BELOW ARE STATEWIDE REFERRAL NETWORK (SRN) UNITS THAT ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE. THESE UNITS DON'T HAVE ANY PERSONS ON OUR ONLINE WAITING LIST OR PRE-SCREENING, ASSESSMENT, INTAKE & REFERRAL (PAIR) MODULE THAT HAVE SELECTED TO LIVE IN THESE COMMUNITIES AND FIT THE CRITERIA.
These aren't the only SRN units available, just the units that don't currently have active referrals. In order for your consumers to have access to all of the available SRN units every month, they have to be entered into the PAIR module or waiting list.
2016 ILLINOIS HUD HOMELESS PROVIDERS PEER TO PEER WORKSHOP
Springfield, Illinois/Wyndham Springfield City Cen
700 East Adams Street
Springfield, IL 62701
The Annual Homeless Provider Peer-to-Peer Workshop and Post Workshop Training focuses on sharing information on a wide range of homelessness related issues, with HUD homeless grantees, Continua of Care and other homeless providers. It also provides HUD an opportunity to provide guidance on the Continua of Care homeless program policies, procedures, and regulations. The Peer Workshop will include a variety of homeless related panel discussions that include federal, state and local agencies as well as HUD funded service providers. The overall goal is to help reduce or end homelessness in the State of Illinois. The focus of this year's workshop is to continue to help end veteran and chronic homelessness, but will also touch on issues related to rural homelessness, program closures and other topics that are beneficial to the Continua participants. The event also provides an opportunity for our grantees to network with their peers and HUD staff. The event agenda will be added to this website as soon as it's available Note: There will be a separate Startup Workshop that will be available for new and existing guarantees, that will follow the end of the Peer Workshop at mid-day on Wednesday, September 28th. The Start-Up workshop will end on Thursday, September 29th. This workshop will provide guidance on the Continua of Care homeless program policies, procedures, and regulations. To register for this workshop, use the separate Start-Up Workshop link on this website.
Contact Info:
Darrel Bugajsky
(312) 913-8716
darrel.bugajsky@hud.gov
Registration closes on : September 21, 2016
3…2…1…Illinois' Interagency Committee on Employees with Disabilities has a new webpage that is now live! Check out ICED information, agency partners and valuable information at http://www.illinois.gov/sites/iced/Pages/default.aspx
