NLIHC works to ensure that low income households have the opportunity to live in housing where services are integrated and available to support their tenancies. NLIHC urges appropriators to increase funding for supported housing programs serving vulnerable populations and supports legislative and administrative reforms to those programs.
For more detail, view this housing plus services fact sheet. You can also find more information on Housing Plus Services on NLIHC’s Advocates’ Guide.
Background on Services Integrated into Housing. The importance of integrating services with housing in order to help low income people achieve housing stability is now widely recognized. The variations in types of existing housing and service initiatives have produced an increasingly complex language with multiple meanings and overlapping definitions, with terms that are used loosely and interchangeably. Clarity is needed for a succinct, detailed analysis of housing and services initiatives. Further, the proliferation of housing plus services programs in recent years has happened with few tested models and standards for service delivery.
Defining Housing Plus Services. The National Low Income Housing Coalition proposes Housing Plus Services as an umbrella term that captures the phenomenon of combined housing and service initiatives. Housing Plus Services refers to permanent affordable housing that incorporates various levels of services with housing, with services provided, preferably, by trained staff for whom service delivery, not property management, is their primary responsibility.
To guide practice in Housing Plus Services programs, the National Low Income Housing Coalition proposes a basic set of Principles that we encourage low income housing providers who operate Housing Plus Services programs to adopt.
The Housing Plus Services Policy Committee of NLIHC has also developed a Typology of existing Housing Plus Services programs, analyzed by the dimensions of: housing models, property management and housing operations practices, and supportive services plans, practices and staffing.
Housing for People who are Homeless.Housing for people who are homeless is frequently funded through McKinney‐Vento Homeless Assistance funding which assists in the coordination of services for people exiting homelessness. Some specialty vouchers also serve people who are homeless by pairing rental assistance with services that can support a person’s transition into their new home and community.
For more information about NLIHC’s Housing Plus Services work, please contact Housing Policy Analyst Melissa Quirk at melissa@nlihc.org or 202-662-1530 x 230.
