The Corporation for Supportive Housing is giving McLean County a $200,000 grant. The money will help analyze data from housing, homeless, healthcare and law enforcement agencies to help identify super-users of the system so they can be better treated and diverted from jail or prison.
CSH Program Manager John Fallon recently spoke with GLT about the importance of establishing supportive housing and delivering services in that space.
"They can't remember what time it is. They have difficulty with transportation. There is a certain set of skills they just don't know. And so it's better to have the counselor come to the person. You can see a whole lot in the apartment that you wouldn't be able to see in the office. And you can quickly make some real judgments. This person is having difficulty. This person is doing just fine," said Fallon.
McLean County is one of four communities in the country to get the grant this year. The others are counties in Utah, Nevada, and Missouri.
“McLean County is honored to be selected to participate in the CSH Data Integration/ Pay For Success Technical Assistance Grant. As addressed in McLean County’s Mental Health Action Plan and by the work of the County Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, this partnership with CSH will allow us to use data to ensure that supportive housing is targeted to those who are most in need and to improve outcomes for individuals that cycle between multiple systems of crisis care, including our homeless shelters, emergency rooms, and the criminal justice system," said McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre.
Each recipient will receive services and resources from CSH depending on the needs of their respective projects. The four counties will then have up to 18 months to collaborate, integrate and implement their data matching practices, and develop and determine the feasibility of Pay for Success to create the supportive housing they envision.
Fallon said recently that communities have developed various models to provide supportive housing once they identify those who could benefit from it.
"There's a community that I'm working with now where the county might actually pay for a year for a person to reduce their apartment to an affordable price and if they do well in that setting under the supervisions of corrections, then the local public housing authority is going to give them a federal voucher," said Fallon.
McLean County may also receive technical assistance from the University of Chicago Center for Data Science and Public Policy, Harder and Company, and the Nonprofit Finance Fund.
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