Helping Families Find Stability – SHA’s RVP

With the help of its service agency partners, Spokane Housing Authority’s innovative Referral Voucher Program is providing stable housing to more people in great need—in record time

With the launch of its Referral Voucher Program in 2015, Spokane Housing Authority (SHA) has transformed its process for allocating HUD Housing Choice vouchers. Through this program, housing vouchers are getting into the hands of eligible recipients in the region with the severest housing needs. And, thanks to the commitment made by community partners to provide targeted services, the success rate of those who participate in the RVP has increased dramatically.

In 2013, when Pam Tietz took on the leadership of SHA, the lease-up rate for Housing Choice Vouchers stood at about 37%. Tragically, SHA’s experience was not unique. Across the country, particularly in areas like Spokane where affordable housing is scarce and vacancy rates are low, market forces have been creating extreme headwinds for voucher recipients.

In addition, because it was lottery-based, the voucher distribution process wasn’t targeting clients based on need. “We knew we had to do better,” says Pam. “So many of the people we serve face overwhelming obstacles. We also knew we couldn’t do this alone. We asked our stakeholders in the community to tell us where they saw the most need, what their clients would require to succeed in securing long-term housing placements—and to partner with us to help provide that assistance.”

The Pilot: Community partners weigh in on best practices
In early 2015, SHA began a series of collaborative meetings to gather input from service partners on how Housing Choice vouchers could be combined with supportive services. This process defined needs and identified barriers; it also clearly revealed how extensively these organizations were committed to providing voucher recipients with the support they’d need to make it through the process.

Based on these listening sessions, the Referral Voucher Program (RVP) began as a one-year pilot program in mid-2015. Nine local nonprofit and government agencies were awarded contracts through a competitive process, with 25 SHA-issued vouchers per month dedicated to the program. These agencies serve the elderly, disabled, and families with children.

The result? RVP voucher holders have achieved an 84% lease-up rate, taking an average of just 41 days from call-up to lease-up. The success of the pilot led SHA to extend the program for an additional three years—and then, more recently, to make it permanent. SHA is now applying this collaborative approach across its entire Housing Choice voucher program.

Remarkably, SHA is not a HUD-designated Moving-to-Work housing authority. Despite this, Pam and her team were able to creatively work within HUD’s voucher program guidelines to design an effective local solution to meet the priorities they and their partners identified. “Any housing authority in the country could replicate this,” says Pam. “It simply requires that local service partners be willing to step up to help meet the needs of their communities.”

A mandate to serve those who most need housing

At the outset, SHA and its partners dug deeply into the voucher program’s shortcomings and challenges. These critical pieces stood out:

SHA’s lottery system didn’t prioritize housing based on need.
Before the RVP launch, families and individuals contended with years-long lottery waitlists for Housing Choice vouchers.
Many of those who received a voucher after a long wait were already in crisis. Navigating the required voucher forms and verifications presented huge challenges. Those who ultimately did succeed in securing housing took an average of 230 days to get a lease.
For many, negative rental histories, including past evictions, made them renters of last resort for landlords. In a competitive rental marketplace, this presented a virtually insurmountable barrier.

The mandate was clear: Get the vouchers into the hands of those who needed them most, and provide the services needed for clients to secure a lease and sustain a long-term housing placement. SHA set several requirements. All participating agencies agreed to provide renters with a Responsible Renters Program—training to give them tools to achieve long-term success. As well, renters would receive hands-on assistance throughout the rental search process, including locating suitable housing and convincing landlords to say yes.

For individuals with mental health challenges, hands-on help can make all the difference

Across the region SHA serves, for each partnering agency and specific population, the needs of individuals vary. An organization’s role may include life skills training, transportation, move-in assistance, financial management classes, energy assistance, mental health services, employment services, and much more—including incredible persistence with landlords.

Just ask Chrystal Alderman, who is a supervisor with Frontier Behavioral Health’s Homeless Outreach Team. She has worked with the homeless in Spokane for 17 years. With Spokane’s vacancy rate hovering around 1.4%, “it’s just been much, much more difficult to get into an apartment in the last couple of years,” she says. “So many people are vying for rentals. If there’s a vacancy today, it won’t be there tomorrow. Just staying on top of all of that is a full-time job in itself.”

She gives the example of homeless clients who live with schizophrenia. “Often, they’re just focused on survival needs and dealing with the symptoms they have. It’s just such a vast world out there with so many barriers to overcome if you don’t have support. I can’t say enough about how helpful the RVP vouchers have been for us.”
Chrystal describes how an RVP voucher helped her client Ray Findley avoid returning to homelessness. Ray is a Veteran. He has built a stable community through volunteering daily at Shalom Ministries, serving meals to low-income and homeless people. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, “Ray is an incredible person,” she says. “He is 100% there for the people at Shalom. He had been previously homeless for years and then was able to get into a place. But the rent, just like anywhere else, rose above the threshold he was able to afford—there were multiple factors in play.” Ray had succeeded in establishing himself after being homeless for so long, but his mental stability was literally under attack: “He was really stressed out about losing his housing.”

For Ray and many others with severe mental health challenges, getting into a stable home frequently requires walking beside them every step of the way. “Ray just wasn’t up for going through the application process and going to appointments on his own,” Chrystal explains. “He needed to know I was a person he could trust. I needed to be with him throughout that whole process.”

Ultimately, Chrystal was able to help Ray find a home about a mile from Shalom Ministries, easily accessible by public transit. “It’s a really safe and secure building and he feels really comfortable there,” she says.
Many of Chrystal’s clients need advocacy. Some are held back by a criminal history or past evictions, which will emerge in a background check. Often there are mitigating details, she says, that don’t come through on paper. She’ll take that extra step in providing back-up information that can explain circumstances and highlight positive steps taken since an incident occurred, which can make a big difference in winning landlords over.

“I continue to have scenarios where I’ll talk to a landlord who has an opening and he’ll say, ‘If you don’t get here in an hour it’s going to someone else.’ How in the heck can a person who’s homeless, with no phone, even get that information? Or get there in time?”

Helping homeless families achieve stability: “We were not going to be that family who gave up on their kids.”

Collaborating with the Spokane School District, Rosa Lopez of Northeast Community Center administers RVP vouchers targeted to homeless families. “This is a miracle program,” Rosa says. “I just wish there were more vouchers available. For families who have been living in their car or in a tent or in somebody’s backyard—and then going through this process and finally getting into their own place … it’s just amazing.”

For school-aged kids, she points out, “you can always see the difference after they get out of homelessness. In terms of their education, once they’re in a stable place, attendance gets better, the grades go up, they’re able to focus on school.” Rosa gets many referrals from Shaw Middle School, which is right across the street. Other families are referred to her through Spokane’s HEART (Homeless Education and Resources) Program, the nearby woman’s shelter, or through word of mouth.

In the case of Crystal and Don Holt, Rosa simply happened to overhear a desperate phone conversation. Crystal and Don and their three kids had been homeless for five years. They’d come into Northeast Community Center to use the free phone. “Rosa called us into her office,” Crystal recalls, “and she said, ‘tell me what’s going on.’”

After losing their home, jobs, and cars post-Recession, “we had been bouncing back and forth between motels and camping and staying with family members for five years, fighting every week to make sure our kids had a roof over their heads,” says Crystal. Both Crystal and Don have had to contend with long-term medical issues, which have compounded their struggle. But “we were not going to be that family who gave up on our kids.”
Their struggles had taken them from Colorado and Wyoming to Idaho to Spokane, seeking out work and housing and stability for their family. “It’s a really bad, vicious cycle. When you’re living in a motel, you can’t save money for a rental deposit no matter if you’re working or not.”
When the Holts first met Rosa, they learned about the RVP. At that point all vouchers were already earmarked for other homeless families. “Well, Rosa called us about a month later and said she had a family that gave up their voucher. She asked us if we wanted it,” Crystal laughs. “We were completely speechless. When you’re actually in the situation and you get this voucher it’s a feeling that you really can’t even describe: That joy. It’s amazing. We cried when we got our keys.”

Crystal and Don quickly moved through the program’s requirements. Due to their financial struggles, their credit presented issues for landlords, but Rosa was able to connect them with a rental owner who was willing to work with them.

The Holts have lived in their own home for the last year and a half. Crystal’s kids are now 12, 7, and 5. “My kids are finally stable in the same schools, not having to move around from motel to motel—and having to see mom and dad stressed all the time,” she says. “They don’t have to see that now, and they’re a lot happier … This program has been life-changing for our family.”

Enabling disabled individuals to live independently and more cost-effectively: “Honoring that choice”

Julie was born with a severe form of muscular dystrophy. At 61, her disease continues to progress. As a quadriplegic, Julie relies on caregivers for her survival. But she is determined to keep her independence as much as she can, and to continue to live in her own apartment for as long as she can. Her story highlights how formidable the challenges are for someone in her position to secure affordable independent housing—but it’s also a story of her courage and persistence in the face of truly difficult circumstances.

About eight years ago, Julie lost her subsidized apartment after getting very sick, and ended up in a succession of nursing homes. “I was in four nursing homes over about two and a half years. There was really bad abuse in two of them,” she says. Julie feared that she’d be stuck in nursing homes for the rest of her life. But in 2014, she managed to get into her own apartment, thanks to some benefits she received from her estranged husband’s pension.
Fast forward to September 2017. “Every year my rent had gone up a little bit, and a year ago, it was going up beyond what I could afford,” Julie says. Although her caregiving costs are subsidized and capped at one-third of her income, that takes a huge bite out of her monthly budget. Julie relies on caregivers 12-13 hours per day. “I’ve got to straddle shifts so I get the care I need,” she says. Julie could not afford an extra dime for rent. If she couldn’t find a solution, and quickly, she would end up back in a nursing home.

Julie’s case manager referred her to Daniel Ruddell, a housing program manager for the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration at DSHS. Daniel works across the Spokane region with disabled people of all ages as well as seniors, seeking out housing solutions. In Julie’s case, he explains, as a result of painful contortions of federal government rule-making, Julie was ineligible for subsidized HUD 811 (disabled) housing because she receives a “too high” monthly disability benefit (SSDI) that puts her at about 50% of AMI.

Daniel points out that “the only way I could get Julie housed was through the RVP. That’s why this program has been such a critical success for Julie and others like her, who for whatever reason don’t qualify financially for HUD 811 or other housing assistance programs despite a very clear need.”
There’s a big irony here, one that’s not lost on either Julie or Daniel. Enabling Julie to remain in her own apartment is considerably less expensive. In Spokane, Daniel says, the typical cost for Medicaid clients to stay in a skilled nursing facility is $7,000 a month. “It makes sense from all perspectives to honor Julie’s choice to live independently. We can provide the exact same level of support in her apartment as we can in a skilled nursing facility and cut the expense to taxpayers by 70 percent.”

He adds, “The majority of the clients on my wait list for housing currently reside in skilled nursing facilities or assisted living facilities and they want more independence—all we’re trying to do is honor that choice.”

Daniel says he worked closely with SHA before the RVP pilot was launched. “Pam sought out input from a lot of us. I was one of those folks who wasn’t afraid to chip in and provide some input and direction. I absolutely love the RVP Program. In fact it’s at the top of the list as far as a favorite. But I have way too many clients to house and I need more resources.” Currently, Daniel says, his waitlist for the RVP vouchers allocated to his division runs through 2020.

As for Julie, she did have to wait several months for an RVP voucher to become available. “Dan kept reassuring me, saying, ‘things are looking good, keep hanging in there,’ and sure enough, in April I got that phone call.” Julie has built a support network in her apartment building. “When I knew I’d be able to stay in this place that is safe for me … I am very, very thankful for where I am right now.”

Replicable, cost-effective—and providing stability over the long term

With the help of the supportive services provided by SHA’s community partners, 251 RVP participants (84%) were successfully housed during the first year of the program. Less than 1% ultimately left their housing due to non-compliance.

One of the great strengths of this partnership is that clients have access to case managers after leasing if they need additional assistance to stabilize and maintain their housing, Pam says. “This program is about both leasing success and long-term stability. Local supportive service agencies are clamoring to get connected because it provides a much-needed housing component. We’ve also been approached by other housing authorities interested in learning how to replicate the RVP in their own regions. I’m excited about its potential.”

The RVP was awarded a national award by NAHRO (National Association for Housing and Redevelopment Officials) for innovation in best practices. HUD, after monitoring the program, gave it a strong thumbs up.

One last benefit: the RVP is also reducing SHA’s administrative costs. With more vouchers being used successfully, fewer “failures” have to be reprocessed and regurgitated. “Basically, this savings equates to a full-time position for SHA,” Pam says. “Taking what we’ve learned—and saved—from the RVP, we’ve established a new position in the last six months. We now have a full-time staff member who liaises with landlords to help advocate for our RVP participants.”