The movement to supportive housing in the homeless sector is progressive and often unfamiliar to many outside funding sources. With the help of the CSH we are able to connect urban ideas to rural northern Michigan and improve our service delivery and increase permanent housing outcomes.
As Project Director of a National Mental Health Association that represents State Mental Health Agencies, I have had the honor of working with the Corporation for Supportive Housing for the last 7 years. They are one of the most impactive national groups with which I have ever worked and seem to hire and retain staff who have the expertise and dedication to make a difference. They are one of our best partners! In the past decade, CSH can take a tremendous amount of credit for the increase of safe, decent and affordable housing secured and maintain for those with mental illness. Thank You CSH!!!
CSH provides invaluable technical assistance to not-for-profit organizations seeking to develop housing and social services for homeless populations. I have personally worked with their staff advising organizations about best practice service models and sources of funding to make their project dreams viable. CSH staff has contributed to the development of hundreds of units of supportive housing for homeless populations, including a variety of sub-grops., including homeless vets, homeless youth, homeless persons with AIDs/HIV. Their work continues to provide a beacon of light for many individuals who otherwise might not access decent, safe housing. Food and Shelter Campaign
The organization which I work for provides services to homeless and very low-income families. Many of the homeless families who we serve move into permanent supportive housing. Working with the Corporation for Supportive Houisng, we were able to improve the quality of the services which we provided to the homeless families, work better internally as an organization, and document the progress which we are making. The CSH was instrumental in helping us make these important improvements.
CSH is an extremely valuable resource in the supportive housing field. CSH provides effective leadership, useful research, and helpful resources to further the important work of agencies around the country providing supportive housing, and publicizing it to those outside this field. CSH's e- newsletter is concise and provides much valuable information and their website is well organized. Their use of personal stories and photos to "humanize" their work is especially powerful. CSH is one of the first places I look for resources around supportive housing.
In my role as deputy director for my city's housing department, CSH has been a fantastic resource in developing a plan and allocating resources to end homelessness. They have connected us with ideas and with practitioners in similar cities. Largely as a result of their influence, we formed a three-way partnership with our city and county government and United Way to fund a substantial Housing First initiative that produced over 1,000 housing units. CSH is pragmatic and results-oriented. They aren't trying to preach an ideology--just support efforts that work. Very effective organization!
I am so impressed with their focus on professionalism and results. We need more non-profits like CSH.
An amazing and unusual organization that has helped end homelessness for tens of thousands of people who have lived in the streets and shelters literally for decades. They are the 'venture capital' for the field - providing grants and loans to nonprofits around the country that develop housing affordable to the poorest people. They have been a huge factor in the advocacy, education and policy work at the local, state, and federal levels, and the partnerships with banks and other low income housing tax credit investors, delivering the data on cost effectiveness and results that has resulted in billions of dollars of investment, and reduced taxpayer costs for what would otherwise be used by homeless people as a revolving door of shelters, hospital emergency rooms and jails.
CSH held an institute to take teams of people that had a heart for the homeless and help them with the mechanics on how to make that happen and how to obtain the resources to accomplish the goal. They were great to work with and their dedication to meet the needs of the homeless was amazing. It was nice to see that the people from CSH dont just talk the talk, but walk the walk as well. My hats off to them and best wishes to theit efforts in the future. Greg Funk- CEO of Construction Management Services
I am the CEO of a nonporift dedicated to increasing the supply of housing for the diverse famlies of the Sacramento Valley region in California. We house over 2,600 residents, and a few years ago committed ourselves to buying land and building on it the first community in our inventory that would provide permanent housing for formerly homeless and disabled homeless individuals. The Corporation for Supportive Housing was the first institution that took a chance on us and invested in our efforts to build up our capacity to build housing for and serve this group of people. They provided an early grant, provided trainings and supported our networking efforts with others in the field. Today we are halfway through construction on a housing development which will contribute to ending homelessness in our County. We have diverse funding and service partners because of the capacity we gained through the Corporation's early support.
Great work by this organization. Shows that there's a cost effective way of ending homelessness and improving the lives of people most have given up on. Awesome outcomes because of the dedication of the CSH team.
I had the honor of working with CSH during the Indiana Permanent Supportive Housing Institute. The knowledge I obtained in creating a program that is client centered and service focused has been tremendous. I work with youth in the foster care system. We have had numerous youth turn 18 while in care, and end up becoming homeless once their safety net was gone. CSH has helped my dream of helping these youth succeed turn into a reality. I look forward to a continued partnership with CSH. Thank you, CSH, for caring about a population that some may consider "throw aways".
Specialized Alternatives for Families & Youth (SAFY), a therapeutic foster care and adoption agency operating in Indiana and in eight (8) states, just completed training with the Indiana Supportive Housing Institute. The leadership of the Institute team was an awesome demonstration of the kind of well organized, indepth and comprehensive information needed to lay a proper foundation for a thoughtful, inspired and quality project that would not have been possible otherwise. Because of the consistent amd persistent guidance of the Institute team, challenging us to move beyond our comfort zone, the SAFY "Vision" to provide permanent supportive housing to the aging out foster youth population will become a reality. Thank you for your commitment to this poplulation of foster youth who, without strategic and timely intervention, are at risk of homelessness, vlunerable to profound and persistent discouragement and disallusionment. The Institute's leadership assisted us in letting go of our own fears, "stepping up" for our youth who are looking to us to get it right at a time when getting it right really matters. Finally, the Indiana Supportive Housing Institute is what leaving a legacy is all about.....“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead)
I have had the pleasure of utilizing CSH research and expertise on affordable housing projects for over 5 years. Their Toolkits have proved to be a valuable resource for innovative and promising practices for ending long-term homelessness. Because of their advocacy, expertise, leadership, and financial resources, I believe they are the leader in paving the way for policymakers, non-profits, and developers to create sustainable supportive housing solutions.
CSH is a great organization, with a mission of ending chronic homelessness. The organization works with local organizations and government organizations to promote the development of housing units with supportive services for the chronicly homeless. The results of CSH's work can be quantified by the number of housing units created by the work of the organization. The staff is tireless and committed to the mission.
I am a Board member of Cathedral Shelter in Chicago. Cathedral Shelter currently operates 28 units of permanent supportive housing, which date from 1998. CSH was instrumental in the development of that project. We are currently looking to expand our permanent supportive housing program. Over a period of five months this year, another Board member, our Executive Director, and I, attended 80 hours of workshops at a Permanent Supportive Housing Institute put on by CSH. This training was comprehensive and thorough. The instructor's were professional, and exhibited the very highest levels of expertise and knowledge. As a direct result of our experience with the CSH Institute, we are currently actively evaluating multiple sites, and opportunities, for the development of new permanent supportive housing units.
The Corporations for Supportive Housing provides a valuable service to the housing community in Chicago as well as nationwide. The CSH staff is skilled and knowledgeable - the best in the field. The are on the cutting edge of developing programs and approaches to ending homelessness. What an asset to the social service arena in our city!
The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) has served for decades as the leader in connecting vital fundamental housing opportunities for persons who are experiencing poverty and/or other special needs. The level of sophistication and experience shown by their team of consultant experts led by Liz Drapa continue to inspire many of us across the country. As the world economies grow more singular, efficiency will continue to be prioritized. It is economically effective to provide housing with supportive services for a large percentage of the populations suffering homelessness or who are marginally housed.
The Corporation for Supportive Housing Institute is THE reason the Southern Illinois Coalition for the Homeless is now in the final steps in building permanent supportive housing for reentry folks. CSI is not only a source of every type of knowledge you need to build supportive housing, but their staff also helps you solidify your concept, develop partnerships, personally encourages you, and provides capacity funds for start up. I have always felt comfortable asking CSH for help in every step of our development, a continuing relationship for the past three years.
CSH is an integral part of our effort to prepare for HEARTH. They expertly facilitate our state wide conversations and have developed a web based triage and referral tool we call the Indiana Housing Opportunity Planner and Evaluator (I-HOPE) that will allow all case managers equal access to all available housing options and homeless services in their regions.
CSH helped our professional staff understand how to develop permanent supportive housing for people with a mental illness. We now have the ability to develop and implement a new housing project that will help our community.
Recently we had the priveledge to attend the CSH Housing Institute in Illinois. As a property developer and manager we have experience with low income housing but we are working to expand into housing for our homeless veterans. The training we received showed us that even though we thought ourselves to be somewhat knowlegeable and experienced, we had so much to learn about housing and caring for people who are chronically homeless. Our team partner, a service provider of over 100 years history found they also had much to learn about this difficult, but not impossible task. The staff of CSH is the most knowledgable, professional and compassionate group of trainers and advocates for the ending of homelessness in our country. We appreciated the vast resources they shared with us, and will continue to utilize them for the many years to come as a provider of housing.
The CSH Institute is probably the greatest resource in Illinois for organizations that are considering developing permanent supportive housing. My experience at the Institute was phenomenal and I highly recommend the training for anyone who is interested in providing supportive housing.
With a ton of help from CSH our organization was able to develop 45 units of permanent supportive housing in Rockford, IL. This is the first such facility in our community that is open to anyone who is homeless. What a tremendous success! CSH reviewed our applications and helped us strengthen them. They made excellent recommendations on other professionals who could help us with critical services. And they advocated for our project with our funders. We absolutely could not have done this without CSH. We continue to receive very valuable assistance from CSH to effectively operate our facility. They are always prompt, informed, helpful and cheerful. What's not to love.
CSH has taught me so much during the institue. For the last ten years, I've wanted to provide a home for women and children that have been in domestic violence situations. I didn't know where to start. But, thank God for CSH, now I'm developing a 25 unit supportive housing complex for domestic violence. They at CSH have taken each group step by step through the development process, steps to acquiring funds, and actual building of each project. I feel very comfortable in taking on this project now, because I know CSH will be there for me when I have questions,and I know they will be there for me until the project is done. I'm so lucky to be a part of the institute
So often those of us who work to provide food and shelter for individuals in need lose touch with the bigger picture. We're so busy with day to day details - or the trees - that we lose sight of the forest. CSH acts as the advocate for us who looks to longer term concerns, political and governmental issues and respresents us well in these arenas. CSH is also a teacher and a shepherd looking to see that all of us have information and resources that we need to do the job. They do all this with a keen sense of what it measn to be a not-for-profit or to be an agency that houses special populations. Great folks!
CSH has been the source of the most current information on "best practices" in the world of providing housing for the poor. Their assistance is invaluable to our organization and to those planning to provide housing for the poor.
CSH consistently sets the bar high as a leading source of training, technical assistance and advocacy for supportive housing to help end homelessness. Whether it's number crunching or telling the stories of homeless people who've succeeded in their journey, CSH helps put legs under a nationwide effort to solve homelessness. I've interacted with CSH staff from several of their offices nationwide (Illinois in particular), and I've come to expect smart, dedicated, thorough support every time.