Social care is a complex and rapidly changing landscape. Many people across the US have unmanaged medical conditions, face challenging social and personal barriers, and have fallen through the cracks despite the massive investments that healthcare organizations and government agencies have made in people, technology, and outreach. 

The Cost of Falling Through the Cracks

• + 59% total cost of care
• + 79% inpatient hospital admissions
• + 100% emergency department visits

Source: 2022 Impact Report

People with the most challenging social and healthcare needs usually reach out to the organizations and community groups they trust the most. Being able to request support in a secure, reliable, and efficient way makes sure those individuals can access the services and support they need, no matter which door they open.

The Power of an Assistance Request Form

That’s where Unite Us comes in. We partner with provider, health plan, government, and nonprofit organizations across the nation to launch Assistance Request Forms (ARF) that help individuals get connected to social care. 

How It Works

An Assistance Request Form is a public-facing form that enables people to quickly request the services they need, such as food support, housing, or employment assistance. In the form, they can securely share their own or a family member’s basic contact information in addition to the type of need, a short description of the need,  and their consent for this information to be shared with a secure network of providers who can help. The ARF is available in 35 languages to ensure that people can get connected to the care they need as seamlessly as possible.  

After the ARF is submitted, there are two options for what happens next: 

1. Direct response from community-based organizations (CBOs) – If CBOs on the Unite Us Platform have opted to directly respond to ARFs, then the submission will be sent to a recipient organization’s dashboard. At the receiving organization, the relevant users will be notified of the inbound requests for services, and they can reach out to the person directly to provide support.
2. Support from Unite Us Care Coordination Team – Another option that organizations can take is to loop in the Unite Us Care Coordination team. The Unite Us Care Coordination team serves as social care coordinators by identifying and executing appropriate client referrals, taking the onus off of in-house organization administrators. The Care Coordination team will reach out to the person who submitted the ARF form to gather more information as needed, and send a referral through the Unite Us Platform to a local organization that can help. 

Ultimately, in both scenarios, the person who submitted the ARF is seamlessly and securely connected to the care they need. 

Get Started 

Interested in learning more about how Assistance Request Forms can further your SDoH strategy? Request a demo to get started today. 

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The post The Power of Assistance Request Forms in Connecting People to Social Care appeared first on uniteus.com.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the collection of data, 2020 is the most recent year with accurate statistics on the extent of homelessness in America and its impact on specific populations. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 580,466 people in America experienced homelessness that year, with families with children accounting for 30% of that total. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 2.5 million children now experience homelessness each year in America—a historic high. Homelessness affects one out of every 30 children in the country. 

How can we help families find secure and stable housing? To start, meaningful solutions must consider the many causes of homelessness in America, and the wide range of effects it has on families and children.

The Causes of Family Homelessness

No doubt, every story of homelessness is complex and multi-faceted, involving a mixture of personal, societal, and economic factors. Addressing root causes is no simple matter. 

Substance abuse, mental health challenges, and domestic violence are frequently cited as contributing causes to homelessness. Still, the primary factor underlying family homelessness and housing insecurity is the availability of affordable housing. Since the mid-1980s, the supply of low-cost housing in the U.S. has dramatically fallen—even as rent has risen while relative wages have remained largely stagnant. Today, America faces a severe crisis in affordable housing. 

In the U.S., there’s a shortage of 7.3 million available rental homes that people with incomes at or below the federal poverty level can afford. Eight million households are at high risk of housing instability or homelessness because they already devote at least half of their income toward housing costs. Another 3.7 million people are at risk of housing instability because they’re sharing their housing with other people, which can also have negative repercussions. 

During the pandemic, millions of people lost their jobs and were put at severe risk of housing insecurity. Emergency rental assistance and a suspension on evictions helped alleviate that problem. However, 20% of renters with children were still not caught up with rent by October 2021, and rental assistance programs have or will soon expire in many states. As housing prices and rental costs continue to soar, inflation is now making it even harder to make rent. Many families also encounter discrimination and unfair treatment in the housing market, further limiting their access to safe, affordable, and reliable housing.

The Impact of Homelessness on Families

While any person or group can experience homelessness, the immediate and long-term impact can be particularly challenging for families and children. Housing insecurity has significant, adverse effects on physical, mental, and social health, especially on families and children.

Children experiencing housing insecurity are more likely to have emotional and behavioral challenges, as well as health-related problems. Young children, who would normally be at home for large portions of each day, are particularly susceptible. They suffer socially and academically from the dislocation, upheaval, and social stigma of homelessness, and their circumstances increase their likelihood of interaction with the criminal justice system and child welfare services.

Nevertheless, there is hope. Research indicates that the impact on children who experience homelessness fades over time, especially with an increase in proper support, stability, and healthy development. 

The Power of Community Collaboration

At the community level, collaboration between social services organizations and government agencies plays an important role in helping homeless families regain housing security, economic stability, and independence. Programs and initiatives that prevent evictions, make housing more affordable, and rapidly rehouse people in need make a scalable difference for those who are homeless or are struggling to find secure housing. We can further amplify and facilitate collaboration like this today through powerful and secure technology platforms, with the collective goal of addressing family homelessness by helping families recover and thrive.

The recent success in reducing homelessness among veterans—who are 50% more likely to be homeless than other adults—is an inspiring example. Between 2020 and 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) reduced veteran homelessness by 11%. Its success was driven by a Housing First approach, which focused on housing veterans at the outset, and then providing them with wrap-around support such as healthcare, job training, education, and more. More than 30,000 homeless veterans were placed into permanent housing. 

Initiatives like these make a strong case for working across sectors to better serve those in need. Community organizations help homeless families regain stability and independence by collaborating with one another to connect people to resources, services, and support. Together, we can work to end family homelessness and ensure all families have access to safe, affordable, and stable housing.

To do this, solutions should:

• Provide relief, temporary shelter, and assistance. During the pandemic, rent relief and eviction assistance were crucial interventions that reduced homelessness. When homelessness is unavoidable, emergency shelters and interim housing can provide temporary refuge. Rapid re-housing has also helped families get back into stable housing sooner.
• Support with income, employment, and education. Programs and services that supplement income, support employment, and provide education can help promote housing stability in a way that’s both sustainable and intentional. Going one step further and addressing needs around food insecurity, child care, transportation, utility payments, and healthcare reduces the likelihood of repeating the cycle of homelessness. Programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are crucial for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
• Collaborate around a coordinated approach. Effective coordination between community organizations and service providers aligns efforts that limit homelessness, match families to resources and services, and reduce recurrences. Adopting this coordinated approach allows communities to identify gaps, set goals, and establish timelines—all the while assessing resources to quickly identify people experiencing a housing crisis and connect them  to care.
• Facilitate communication and secure information sharing. Effective use of technology helps communities better understand the issue, identify the root causes of homelessness, and develop effective solutions. Communicating and securely sharing information in accordance with an individual’s consent across a single platform allows local organizations to better allocate resources and coordinate quick responses to the families they serve.

Technology That Works Together

Investing in the community, providing longer-term housing, and connecting those struggling with homelessness to wrap-around support takes significant collaboration. While housing services can be a complicated landscape, Unite Us streamlines the referral process and connects community-based organizations to coordinated referral systems that already exist, like Continuums of Care (CoCs).

Using the Unite Us Platform, organizations can follow each client’s journey from start to finish and ensure families get connected to other social supports designed to strengthen and improve their lives. Unite Us’ national network across 44 states includes thousands of organizations and programs that offer support to homeless families and individuals—with a wide range of services including child care, employment assistance, early childhood services, income support, and more.

Organizations already leveraging Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), which are local information systems that comply with HUD’s data collection, management, and reporting standards, require technology solutions that streamline collaboration and easily integrate into their daily operations. 

Unite Us has partnered with several CoCs across the country. Using Unite Us with HMIS allows organizations to:  

• Send secure, real-time referrals and track client outcomes. 
• Identify eligibility gaps that affect community members.
• Proactively address a range of client needs beyond housing. 
• Increase organizational efficiency and strengthen your impact.  

“It would be impossible to have the connections to as many organizations and services as Unite Us can link us up with. It goes back to the time consumption. Even if my ‘network’ was as large as the Unite Us database of organizations, I would not have enough time in the week to reach out to them for the number of families in need that we serve. With Unite Us, the referral is sent from organization to organization seamlessly. It has been very efficient for myself and the families we serve.”

– Jason Chaplin, Housing Stability Advocate at St. Paul’s Center

Interview Spotlight: Hope Pathways of Manatee County

We recently had the opportunity to interview our partner Hope Pathways of Manatee County (HPMC) about their experience working with Unite Us to connect the dots in their community.

Created to end homelessness in Manatee County, Florida by building partnerships between nonprofits, HPMC hopes to uplift those impacted by homelessness in an interconnected, systemic, compassionate fashion. This work starts with filling the gaps by creating processes that help move individuals who are experiencing homelessness into emergency shelters, supportive services, and ultimately into affordable housing.

“A lot of organizations are realizing they need to unify and collaborate, but they’re struggling with how. With the HPMC Model, we focus on giving a hand up—not just a handout. It is about calculated compassion and Unite Us provides a tool for that process.” – Christina Gerken, Align Consulting

Part of Unite Florida, a coordinated care network of health and social services providers, HPMC utilizes the Unite Us Platform, a collaboration software that allows all of the initiative partners to easily connect, securely share information, and ultimately better serve those in need.

“Our Align Round Table needed a coordination system to help implement the HPMC Model. Unite Us is that needed tool for this working model. It offers the connection to keep the accountability going, so you never lose track of people and you never give them that horrible feeling that nobody cares.” – Dr. Eric Palmu

Read more from the dynamic conversation with Christina Gerken from Align Consulting; Dr. Eric Palmu, an Advisory Board Member for HPMC; and Stephanie Harris, Unite Us Senior Community Engagement Manager in Florida below.

Q: Tell us about your organization, Hope Pathways of Manatee County.

Christina: A lot of organizations are realizing they need to unify and collaborate, but they’re struggling with how. With key leaders in the community of Manatee County, the Hope Pathways Initiative was designed, created, and implemented through an Align Round Table. This is a model where organizations step in and are part of it. HPMC is not a new nonprofit. It’s a coalition, a coordinated effort. HPMC is not duplicating services or telling an organization what they can or can’t do because they’re already doing excellent work. Organizations, entities, healthcare, and law enforcement connect so that clients in need of services can go from beginning to end in a more streamlined process. In addition, with the HPMC Model, we focus on giving a hand up—not just a handout. It is about calculated compassion, and Unite Us provides a tool for that process.

Q: What are some common misconceptions about family homelessness and the impact it has on the community?

Christina: To combat the stigma of homelessness, it’s important to educate the community that an estimated 70% of homeless people want help, but there is no clear pathway for them. We want to teach the community how to effectively help those who want to come out of the poverty cycle and about where their existing tax dollars are going. For example, in the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, their jail spends between $7M and $8M per year housing homeless individuals and dealing with them for small infractions. Then there’s the child welfare system and the court system: Thousands of additional dollars are spent per child due to the lack of housing options. When communities provide monetary support for organizations helping those individuals in need, they help those organizations continue meeting the needs of those they serve and expanding their programs and services for individuals who need help. 

With the Unite Us Platform and the Hope Pathways Model in Manatee County, we gather analytical data to better quantify the needs of the community in all areas of social services. Unite Us helps us understand what the strengths of the community are and where the current gaps in services are. This helps local, city, and state entities know where funding should be distributed.

Stephanie: Homelessness is humiliating for someone in crisis, especially if it is their first time being homeless. There’s a lot of wounded pride. At one point when I was a housing director, I had 16 people in my men and women’s home, and more than half of them had a college degree. Two of them had doctorates. Homeless people are not necessarily uneducated. These are individuals whose lives spiraled out of control. They needed compassion to get them connected to services. I wish we’d had Unite Us at the time. That’s why it made it so easy for me to make this career jump—because I get it. I’ve seen it.

Q: How does collaborating with other organizations play a role in your work?

Dr. Palmu: Two words that are always so important are collaboration and transition. All the organizations are already out there, and our hope is to draw them together around one individual. We’re never letting people stay where they are until they are out of poverty. We keep encouraging and keep supporting them, but at some point, people are going to have to move on to the next level. Those are the two words that I’m always stuck on: collaboration and transition.

Q: Are there any unique partnerships that you’d like to highlight?

Christina: Nick Manassa Ministries is an HPMC member that works toward providing additional emergency shelters, transitional housing, and it partners with law enforcement. When there’s an individual or family in need, Nick Manassa Ministries enters them into Unite Us. Captain Rick recently said that within five minutes, there was a response. That’s what all of our partner organizations have seen in the last year. Instead of taking sometimes three to five days before connecting with an organization, it’s been one day or less. The organizations are blown away by that because ultimately, it’s eliminating some of the trauma for the client, who is already in crisis, and providing much-needed services so much faster.

Together, we can unlock the potential of every community.

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The post No Place Like Home: Addressing Family Homelessness Through Community Collaboration appeared first on uniteus.com.

The pilot program sought to:

• Enhance community resilience through designated, capacity-building funds.
• Optimize access to funds based on evolving needs and priorities.
• Increase the visibility of data to support the need for flexible funding streams and identify other funding sources.

The results? Significant improvements in individuals’ mental and physical health with fewer reported unhealthy days.

There is a potential $8.00 per member per month higher medical cost associated with having an unhealthy day. This indicates long-term cost savings could be realized by increasing the number of individual healthy days.

Reaching People in Need with Social Care Funding

Metro United Way demonstrated the ability to have a real and lasting impact on the communities it serves—with Unite Us Payments solution providing the platform to monitor and measure that impact.

Unite Us provides partners in the community with one easy-to-use, secure, and compliant platform to coordinate social care, including social needs screening, referrals, and tracking of funding and outcomes.

Reducing the administrative burden thanks to automated workflows and reporting, our platform increases care teams’ efficiency and impact, as they can focus more on what they do best: helping people.

Access the case study to learn how Unite Us can bring better health outcomes to the people and communities you serve.

Access Case Study

The post Louisville Housing Initiative Case Study appeared first on uniteus.com.

The pilot program sought to:

• Enhance community resilience through designated, capacity-building funds.
• Optimize access to funds based on evolving needs and priorities.
• Increase the visibility of data to support the need for flexible funding streams and identify other funding sources.

The results? Significant improvements in individuals’ mental and physical health with fewer reported unhealthy days.

Reaching People in Need with Social Care Funding

Metro United Way demonstrated the ability to have a real and lasting impact on the communities it serves—with Unite Us Payments solution providing the platform to monitor and measure that impact.

Unite Us provides partners in the community with one easy-to-use, secure, and compliant platform to coordinate social care, including social needs screening, referrals, and tracking of funding and outcomes.

Reducing the administrative burden thanks to automated workflows and reporting, our platform increases care teams’ efficiency and impact, as they can focus more on what they do best: helping people.

Download the case study to learn how Unite Us can bring better health outcomes to the people and communities you serve.

Download the Case Study

The post Louisville Housing Initiative Case Study appeared first on uniteus.com.

On a typical Saturday last January in Sioux City, Iowa, Ana Hernandez got ready for bed after a night of watching television with her family. She joked with her daughter that it was so cold outside, they might freeze that night.

A few hours later, around 6 am, Ana woke up to a peculiar smell. She wanted to keep sleeping but felt that something was off, so she decided to check the kitchen. That’s when she walked past her daughter’s room and saw that it was “bright, beet red.” Her home, where both her son and daughter were still sleeping, quickly became engulfed in flames.

As Hernandez and her children rushed downstairs, they saw that fire was already ripping through the two-story building where they lived.

“I was paralyzed seeing how much smoke and fire there was in comparison to what I was experiencing inside,” Hernandez said. She watched helplessly as all her family’s possessions were destroyed in an instant. “It was everything we had and everything we knew. And there was nothing we could do about it,” Hernandez said.

Making the First Referral

The following day, Hernandez called the Sioux City Community School District, where both her children attend school. She wanted to let the school know that her kids had lost their computers in the fire, so they wouldn’t be able to participate in their virtual classes on Monday. Hernandez reached Dulce Sanchez, Equity and Homeless Liaison, at the school district.

Upon learning that the Hernandez family had lost everything, Sanchez sprang into action. Her organization had recently joined the Unite Iowa network, and she knew this was an opportunity to make her first referral and connect Hernandez with essential resources.

“I logged in and checked off everything I thought she would need,” Sanchez said. Those needs included housing, clothing, household items, food, and extracurricular activities for Hernandez’s son and daughter.

Within 24 hours, a nonprofit organization in the community answered the call.

The Power of a Coordinated Network

When Mandy Engel-Cartie saw a request for help through Unite Us, she jumped at the opportunity to offer assistance to a family in need. Engel-Cartie is a director at Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping girls become confident, capable leaders through education and mentorship.

Girls Inc. had recently joined the Unite Iowa network. The organization has a partnership with Bed Bath and Beyond and receives regular donations of brand-new bedding and other household goods. Since the pandemic began, Girls Inc. has served as a learning hub for girls involved in the organization, providing a supportive environment for virtual learning. Since fewer families had been coming through the building, Engel-Cartie said donations were piling up. When she saw the referral from Sanchez, she offered to give Hernandez and her family any supplies they needed.

“Mandy was so wonderful. She was able to provide me with anything and everything,” Hernandez said. “I went to go pay them a visit, and Mandy said, ‘Here’s what we’ve got, grab anything you need.’ In my mind, I was thinking, ‘We need everything.’”

Providing a Roadmap to Housing Assistance and Resources

Although the Sioux City Community School District and Girls Inc. had worked together in the past, COVID-19 safety protocols had created a silo between the two organizations. The Unite Us Platform was able to keep these two partners connected throughout the pandemic.

“If we had not been part of Unite Iowa and if we did not have the platform, we simply would not have been aware of the needs of this family,” Engel-Cartie said. “In a nutshell, there was a need, and there were resources, but there wasn’t a roadmap between those two things. Unite Iowa is what gave us that roadmap and changed lives.”

School districts across networks powered by Unite Us serve as critical conveners within their communities to address the drivers of health of their students and families. As the Equity and Homeless Liaison for the Sioux City Community School District—which serves more than 15,000 students—Sanchez said she had often struggled to connect families with the help they needed efficiently. Like many communities across the U.S., Sioux City faces unprecedented levels of social need due to the pandemic, and connection to resources is now more critical than ever. Like many of the networks powered by Unite Us, Unite Iowa reports food assistance, housing and shelter, and clothing and household goods as their top three needs.

“Sometimes, it’s hard for me to find which resource to use. We have resources, but it can be difficult to get a hold of them,” Sanchez said. Through the Unite Us Platform, she has already made a second referral for another client.

“It’s comforting for us too because we know that our families are getting that local help,” Sanchez said. “Our families know now, there are good people out there, there are resources, and there are people willing to provide help.”

Unite Iowa is a community data exchange of health and social care providers sponsored by CyncHealth.

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The post Housing Assistance: How a Social Care Network Helped a Family Rebuild After House Fire appeared first on uniteus.com.

Housing as the highest need across all networks

Housing remains the top need across Unite Us’ networks spanning across 40 states, accounting for 30% of all service requests. When we dive deeper, we also find that outcome resolution rates are lower for housing at 69% compared to food assistance at 85% and income assistance at 90%.

This data shows that despite the protections in place for renters and homeowners including CARES Act funding, state and local governments are unable to meet the growing demand for housing assistance, particularly for those who are at risk of eviction, during a time where stable and safe housing is critical to fighting the pandemic.

Within three months, $3MM distributed to over 2500 individuals in St. Louis

We are seeing this first hand in St. Louis where the Unite Us Platform is being used by United Way 2-1-1 Missouri in partnership with the City and County to coordinate and track the disbursement of CARES Act funding for eviction prevention, including rental, mortgage and utility assistance. Starting on August 19th, The Greater St. Louis Community Information Exchange, funded through a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to the United Way of Greater St. Louis, supported the distribution of funding to its community via the Unite Us Platform. A little more than three months later, the United Way 2-1-1 has used the Unite Us Platform to coordinate the distribution of over $3MM in funding to over 2500 individuals, with thousands of others in the process of receiving support.

This report details the St. Louis City and County CARES Act funding distributed on the Unite Us Platform and the average disbursement per case.

Can supply meet the increased demand?

We are beginning to see demand for services surpass the supply, with 57% of cases being resolved positively. Case resolution rates often indicate a network’s ability to meet the demand of individual and family needs in the community. Time to case closure also indicates a network’s ability to meet the community’s needs. The St. Louis network is experiencing on average 24 days to close a case. As we analyze further in St. Louis, we see that one of the common reasons for an unresolved case and longer case close time is the time required to obtain documentation to meet federal grant requirements. To receive CARES Act funding, each individual must show their loss of income is due to COVID-19, including but not limited to: pre-COVID pay stubs or proof of income, current proof of income or proof of unemployment, proof of a hospital visit if hospitalized, proof of potential eviction and being behind on rent, or a letter from the landlord stating that the person will not be evicted if this month’s rent is paid. These requirements present a substantial hurdle for community-based organizations and local governments as they work to meet the immediate needs of individuals impacted by COVID-19, especially while so many are themselves displaced from their workplaces.

“Faced with a seemingly unavoidable wave of homelessness, St. Louis opted to take a systematic approach to addressing the need. By disbursing funds through a common platform with Unite Us, the United Way was able to gain insights for the city and county about the gap between the need and available funding, as well as demographic disparities in housing instability.” – Regina Greer, Chief Impact Officer of United Way of Greater St. Louis

St. Louis is not alone in this struggle. Most American cities are facing not only the infectious spread of COVID-19, but the overwhelming economic impacts of job loss on individuals and families. While cities and counties like St. Louis use these metrics in real-time to identify gaps and divert funding, recruit new providers and partners, or advocate for needed resources, an avalanche of new cases continues to grow.

St. Louis data show the disproportionate impact on women of color

The network data in St. Louis is also telling a familiar and deeply troubling story. COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on women of color. The St. Louis rapid response network tracks demographic data coupled with referral needs and outcomes. The data clearly show that Black women who are heads of their household have been disproportionately impacted by job loss due to the pandemic and face increased risk of eviction.

“This has affected my hours as a caregiver. A lot of people are afraid of others coming to their homes due to COVID-19. I am a single mother of four, I am only working three hours a day, it’s not enough to pay utilities and rent. It’s behind and I’m afraid that my family will be forced out on the streets. I am really trying to stay strong but this pandemic has really changed our lives.”

Did you become unemployed due to COVID-19?	Head of Household Gender Distribution	Race Distribution

Moving from response to recovery

Although the data shows the gaps left even after successful disbursement of CARES Act funding, these funds still serve an important role in the larger plan to enable recovery and future resilience for our country and individuals most affected by the pandemic and economic recession.

We need to provide tools to state and local governments to disburse their CARES Act and other emergency funding in the most expedient, coordinated, and trackable way possible – while advocating to expand funding eligibility for people who needed assistance prior to the pandemic. As currently written, CARES Act funding only covers those with loss of income due to the pandemic, not the thousands who were already struggling and who are now in even more dire straits. Using data to identify individual and community-level needs and track outcomes from these disbursements will help state and local governments identify areas for further investment. We are actively working with our partners in St. Louis and others to use this data to inform additional opportunities to fill the gaps identified while also focusing community engagement efforts to onboard organizations that can support co-occurring needs like food, utilities, and income assistance for the broader community launch in Q1 of 2021.

Learn more about how Unite Us can help track and manage CARES Act and other fund distributions to address emergencies in your community today and other COVID response efforts:

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The post The Impact of CARES Act Funding Nationwide and in St. Louis: Early Data Trends appeared first on uniteus.com.

Housing and shelter providers across the country are seeing the initial waves of individuals and families forced out of their homes with little time and few resources to relocate to safe housing in their community. As the court system begins to reopen and process landlord eviction cases, the social care providers on the frontlines know these initial waves will soon be a tsunami.

Coordinated social care networks brace for impact

We continue to see a national trend across our data showing drastic spikes in clients seeking housing and shelter and utilities assistance. As reported in our last two data blog posts, housing and shelter referrals show the highest number of COVID mentions at in-take across our network, revealing a connection between the pandemic and the financial crisis many are experiencing. Additionally, housing and shelter and utilities remain our highest requested service types across the country.

More than just tracking referral numbers and types, the Unite Us Platform allows partners to track their case resolution numbers and outcomes–were the needs of my client, patient, member met, and what was the outcome? With our accurate and structured outcome data, networks can assess their capacity in real-time and prepare for what is just around the corner. So, how are our networks responding to the eviction crisis?

Local-level rapid response: The birth of an eviction coordination center

Louisville, Kentucky is the center of the United Community network, powered by Unite Us and sponsored by Metro United Way and Aetna/CVS. Since April of 2019, United Community has been connecting people to the services they need, and providing insights to the network on how to better serve the community. With this foundation in place and Unite Us’ community engagement team on the ground, Louisville was able to assess the immediate need for housing and shelter and use its CARES Act funding to directly address the housing needs of its community. In partnership with Louisville’s Southwest Community Ministries and the local 2-1-1, United Community established an Eviction Coordination Center, which connects individuals to rental assistance, utility assistance, and legal aid should concerns about eviction with a landlord arise.

Clare Wallace of Louisville’s Community Ministries has been fielding calls from panicked residents, “We know this can be really scary. They’re calling us panicking that they need to try and find some resources. The process can be frustrating and confusing. So, to have assistance through that [the Eviction Coordination Center] is really important.”

Within two weeks of standing up the Eviction Coordination Center, powered by Unite Us, assistance requests spiked to over 600. In just under 3 weeks, the network has been able to respond to over 40% of these requests.

Our commitment to close the gap

Our Data and Analytics team continues to enhance our insights capabilities and offerings. The team is building an evictions dashboard that will help track housing and shelter needs as eviction bans lift and more Americans face housing insecurity and homelessness, many for the first time in their lives. Our community engagement team on the ground will continue to engage and onboard community-based organizations (CBOs) offering housing and shelter services, to bolster network capacity and meet growing demand.

To learn more about our national networks click here.

Join us to build a solution fortoday, tomorrow, and the future:

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The post How Our Networks are Responding to the Eviction Crisis appeared first on uniteus.com.

Huge thanks to Erin Willis, Patrice Pratt, Community Service Council, and all our partners in Tulsa who are doing incredible work every day! We’re making an impact because of you.

To learn more about how we’re building networks:

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The post One Community’s Approach to Preventing Homelessness: All Doors Open appeared first on uniteus.com.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on a single night in January 2017 there were over 86,000 chronically homeless individuals in the United States (24% of the total national homeless population). A person is considered chronically homeless when they “have experienced homelessness for at least a year—or repeatedly—while struggling with a disabling condition such as mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability.” Unsurprisingly, there is a direct connection between homelessness and poor health. But evidence also shows that when housing support is integrated with healthcare, it improves patient adherence to medication regimens and treatment plans and results in fewer visits to the emergency room and fewer hospital admissions.

When you give someone permanent housing, you establish trust with that person, which allows you to better engage them with healthcare and other services. Housing can be a gateway to helping people address the factors contributing to their homelessness and can enable them to achieve healthier, more stable lives. Integrating housing and healthcare not only improves people’s health and reduces the costs of care, it helps them break the cycle of chronic homelessness.

Integrating Housing and Healthcare

Making housing a component of “whole person” healthcare takes close coordination between healthcare systems, housing programs, other social service organizations, and public agencies—entities that often have never worked together before. At times this can make for something like culture shock. In Phoenix, Arizona, Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care, a nonprofit healthcare plan, partners with the City of Phoenix Housing Department and the local United Way to provide supportive housing services as well as physical and mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment to homeless individuals with mental illness. But before they could get their initiative off the ground, Mercy Maricopa and the Housing Department first had to learn about the policy environments affecting each other’s programs, as well as their unique financing structures. They had to align their goals and their approaches, and make sure they understood their own and their partners’ roles. Because they took the time to lay that foundation, they were able to build an extremely effective program that leverages the strengths and resources of all partners: Preliminary data from this program show that between November 2014 and October 2015, psychiatric hospital admissions for the served population dropped by 46% and utilization of crisis services dropped by a third.

It is also critical that partners implement systems to coordinate their communication and facilitate the delivery of integrated services. SD United, a care coordination network for veteran-serving organizations in San Diego, adopted the Unite Us technology to connect the members of its network. This allows a range of social services, including housing programs, healthcare providers and substance abuse treatment, to easily cross-refer their clients to each other. Alpha Project, a San Diego nonprofit, launched its Rapid Rehousing Project in December 2016 and joined SD United shortly thereafter. By June 2017, only six months after the program began, Alpha Project had linked 50 veterans with housing, 31 one of whom were referred through the SD United network. What is more, because the referral now comes complete with all of the necessary documentation, Alpha Project has been able to significantly reduce the time between the referral and a placement in housing, in some cases to as little as two days.

Funding Secure Housing Initiatives

Finally, partners must creatively leverage funding streams to support their collaboration. For example, in Philadelphia, the City Office of Homeless Services has reinvested Medicaid savings into an initiative that places chronically homeless and mentally ill individuals in stable, secure housing and provides them the services they need to remain healthy and off the street. After eight years, 89% of the chronically homeless individuals who entered the program remain housed and the cost of providing them with behavioral health services has dropped nearly 80%. (In fact there are multiple ways to leverage Medicaid funds to integrate housing supports with healthcare, including Medicaid Research and Demonstration programs, Community Based Services waivers, and reimbursement for Targeted Care Management services.) Private funders are also increasingly interested in investing in innovative approaches to decreasing chronic homelessness. Funders Together to End Homelessness, for example, currently has over 200 members, including leading philanthropies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Robin Hood Foundation.

Building partnerships to integrate housing and healthcare can be challenging. But as the collaborations described here show, it can be done, and there are resources available to help. If healthcare systems, public agencies and nonprofit organizations in other cities were to follow the examples set in Philadelphia, San Diego and Phoenix, it could change the course of tens of thousands of lives.

To learn more about how Unite Us can support partnerships between housing providers and other health and community based organizations, get in touch.

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