The Need for Permanent Supportive Housing

According to “Reaching Home: A Ten Year Plan to End Long-Term Homelessness in Connecticut,” 33,000 people – including 13,000 children – experience homelessness at some point during the year.  Worse still, homelessness in Connecticut is increasing.  Emergency shelters are full; the length of stay in shelters has increased; and turnaways have increased by 231% from 2000 to 2004. 

At any given time, approximately half of Connecticut’s homeless people are experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness.  It is estimated that there are 3,500 individuals in Fairfield County who are chronically homeless - that is, without acceptable permanent housing - for more than 90 days.  A significant percentage of today’s homeless population suffers from chronic mental illnesses, often combined with a history of addiction.  In Connecticut there is a lack of inpatient treatment services for people with mental illnesses.  In 1996 when two of the three state mental hospitals and two of the three state addiction treatment facilities were closed, we were told that they would be replaced with community-based programs.  Very few programs were actually established.  This created a new homeless population, with more complex needs than had been true in the past.  This has resulted in an increased demand for existing services and a need for new programs and services that address the complex needs of today’s homeless population.  As the “Reaching Home” report states, “the enormous public cost of this emergency care is exceeded only by the misery of people needlessly trapped in years of homelessness.”

Permanent Supportive Housing is a proven strategy to stop long-term homelessness.  Simply put, it is the cost-effective combinations of affordable housing with supportive services that help people live more stable, productive lives.  After entering Permanent Supportive Housing, tenants reduce their use of inpatient and crisis-oriented services, increase their incomes, and are likely to be employed or participate in education or job training programs, and report that they are functioning more independently than in the past.¹  The annual cost of supporting a household in permanent supportive housing is estimated at less than $10,000 per year, a 50% to 67% reduction from the cost of maintaining households in shelters.²  The “Reaching Home” campaign is targeting the creation of 10,000 new supportive housing units in Connecticut during the next decade.  In Southwestern Connecticut, the plan calls for 2,451 units to be created.  The challenge will be to put those units in the ground.