County-wide Collaborative Flexible Housing Pool

5/21/2019

Health ＆ Social Services

Article Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2019

With $8.1 million in new State funding, Sacramento County is launching new services that will help 600 households resolve their homelessness and stabilize in permanent housing – at a cost of approximately $13,500 per person to re-house. Starting in June, the Flexible Housing Program (FHP) will help families and individuals transition from the streets or temporary emergency shelter to permanent housing and new lives. FHP is a key part of the collaborative investment plan of nearly $20 million adopted by the County Board of Supervisors, the Continuum of Care Board, and the City of Sacramento last October. Participating cities include the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova.

The FHP builds new partnerships and connects existing crisis response programs with re-housing services. Administered by the County Department of Human Assistance, FHP will assist persons referred from County Adult Protective Service (APS), the Office of the Public Defender and from designated emergency shelters and street outreach programs.

Through contracted community providers and County staff, FHP will offer flexible services that include:

Individualized case management services, that connect people to services they need to stabilize in housing and rebuild their lives, including health, behavioral health, employment, disability advocacy, expungement services
Individualized housing services that connect clients to housing in the private market or through public programs. These services include financial help with deposits and rent and support tenants and landlords for up to two years
Expungement services to help participants remove barriers to employment and housing
Disability advocacy services to help persons with disabilities successfully apply for these benefits

Building off of the successful Flexible Supportive Rehousing Program (FSRP), FHP is able to ramp up quickly. Since FSRP’s launch in February of 2018, the program has enrolled the top 250 users of County Behavioral Health and Jail systems and have housed 212 persons since implementation. The program is one of six homeless initiatives the County launched in 2017 as part of its ongoing commitment to reducing homelessness.

In addition to the FHP, Sacramento County is expanding its family shelters and low-barrier scattered site shelters using HEAP funds. Family shelters will expand to serve an additional seven families per night and the Full-Service Re-Housing Shelter will expand capacity by 40 beds per night. Read more about the FHP and all of the County’s HEAP investments here.

For more information about the County’s overall homelessness efforts, including the County Homeless Plan, visit the Responding to Homelessness webpage.