Housing Development

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) - Supportive Housing Training Videos

The links below are to videos created by CSH in collaboration with the Missouri Dept. of Mental Health Housing Unit:

The Continuum of Care Funding Process for Homeless Assistance Funds

A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a community-based, long-range planning process that addresses the needs of homeless persons in order to help them reach maximum self-sufficiency. The CoC is developed through collaboration with a broad cross section of the community and is based on a thorough assessment of homeless needs and resources. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recommends the CoC model as a comprehensive and strategic approach to addressing homelessness. HUD has a wealth of videos at YouTube explaining the CoC process, including this short video that gives a brief explanation of what a CoC is and what it does.

If your agency wants to apply for HUD funding to build affordable housing with supportive services for homeless persons with disabilities, it must participate in its local Continuum of Care. Each CoC coordinates its own application process to HUD for all agencies within the CoC that are seeking HUD Homeless Assistance funds.

Missouri has eight CoCs. The Web site of the Institute for Community Alliances has information about six of the Missouri CoC and the organizations that operate them. The Kansas City/Jackson County CoC web site is here. The St. Charles County CoC web site is here.

Housing Toolkit

The Housing Toolkit is an invaluable reference work on how to develop community-based supportive housing for people with disabilities. It is the result of recommendations made by the Transformation Housing Implementation Work Group and was created by Francie Broderick, who served for 22 years as the executive director for Places for People in St. Louis--a community agency that became a leader in Missouri in the development of supportive housing alternatives for homeless persons living with disabilities, including AIDs and addiction.

The Housing Toolkit was written primarily with community mental health centers in mind--those agencies, along with the Department of Mental Health itself, at the forefront of moving persons with disabilities from institutionalization into community living. The creation of new supportive housing--either through new bricks-and-mortar projects or through the rehabilitation of existing facilities--is an essential component of that process.

Download the Housing Toolkit (PDF 1.52 mb)

Key Issues In Developing Supported Housing

View a video transcript of a webinar conducted by Francie Broderick, who initiated the development of several different models of supported housing for the clients of Places for People in St. Louis.

Webinar Summary:

Published on Jan 18, 2013. The presentation will provide a broad overview of the process of deciding whether and how an agency should proceed in the development of permanent supported housing. The presentation walks the viewer through the steps, decisions points, and the options available to agencies in creating supportive housing.

Learning Objectives: The participant will understand the concept of permanent supported housing and why it is an important tool in assisting people on the path to recovery. The participant will be able to identify different models and designs of supported housing and the link between those models and the people served. The participant will be able to identify the pros and cons of being a developer or partnering with a developer. The participant will identify key resources available to develop housing.

Francie Broderick is a mental health professional with forty years of experience in community mental health, and 37 years at Places for People. Places for People serves individuals with complex and co-occurring behavioral health disorders, accepting a special responsibility to serve those most in need with the most challenging problems. Safe, affordable, permanent housing became an important focus of the agency's work, and Broderick initiated the development of several different models of supported housing for the clients of Places for People. In the last year prior to her retirement from Places for People, she created the Missouri Housing Toolkit which provides an overview of the issues related to development of supported housing, lists resources available, and gives examples of models in operation in Missouri. She is currently working part time as a consultant in the field of supported housing.

Click here to download the Powerpoint file used in the webinar.

Links to Funding Sources

Training Materials for Housing Quality Standards (HQS) Inspections

HQS is a set of HUD-formulated minimum standards of quality and safety for rental units and is used by all Section 8 and Permanent Supportive Housing programs. In 2008, DMH Housing put together a package of HQS-based training materials for housing inspectors, which are available below.

Any agency that must inspect rental properties for safety and quality may use these materials. Please note that these documents do not constitute an official HQS certification for anyone using them--they just cover the basics of HQS. Certification normally involves four full days of training and a comprehensive examination, and is periodically available from Public Housing Authorities or other entities that administer Section 8 programs.

A Good Place to Live: This HUD document provides a narrative summary and explanation of HQS standards for all areas of a rental unit. It includes drawings of rooms in a typical unit showing the areas on which to focus an inspection.
HQS Inspection Checklist: This HUD document is not the official HQS Inspection form used by certified inspectors, but does contain a useful checklist of all areas of concern in an HQS-based inspection.
HQS Inspection Quiz: This document contains a quiz, with answers and brief explanations, that is tied to the quiz slides in the Power Point presentation, below.

HQS Training Visual Presentation

This is a slide presentation to use in conjunction with this HQS training. It combines pictures from "A Good Place to Live," the HQS Inspection Checklist, and slides pertaining to the questions asked in the HQS Inspection Quiz. Choose a link below to download the file in Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2003 format, or as a PDF file.

If your agency has any questions about how to use these documents, or about HQS in general, please email the Housing Unit.