Permanent Supportive Housing -- A Smart Investment Towards Ending Homelessness in DC

Every person deserves the dignity of a home. Yet, DC has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, and nearly half of individuals that are unhoused are experiencing “chronic homelessness.” Chronic homelessness is the condition of being homeless for a year or more, or repeatedly, while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious physical and mental illness.

The Partnership to End Homelessness believes that DC can end chronic homelessness. However, ending chronic homelessness is not possible without a robust homeless service system and providers that can support households experiencing chronic homelessness.

Permanent Supportive Housing - A Solution to Homelessness
The Partnership has invested in multiple projects to advance the work to end chronic homelessness, focusing on Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). PSH is a proven solution that pairs housing with wrap-around services to help those experiencing chronic homelessness not only obtain affordable housing, but also maintain it long-term.

The Partnership has taken an active roll in supporting advocacy efforts to secure historic investments in PSH in the District. Together with our partners DC has secured over 4,000 new PSH vouchers that helped 3,254 individuals and 1,542 families exit homelessness. This funding had a direct impact on the city’s ability to end homelessness and has, in part, led to a 12% decrease in homelessness since 2020.

Investing in Systems Change for Supportive Housing
Securing investment for PSH is only part of the equation. Equally as critical is the need to invest in the housing infrastructure – specifically service providers and advocates who are working to ensure that PSH funding reaches those who need it the most.

To that end, The Partnership has joined with other funders including The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation to help Permanent Supportive Housing providers improve their systems and processes to access the city’s new expanded Medicaid benefit through the Corporation for Supportive Housing.

During this process, we’ve heard from service providers about some of their most persistent ongoing challenges. These challenges included maintaining quality in service delivery amidst increased administrative responsibility, hiring challenges, lack of training and onboarding for new case managers, and inadequate coordination between service providers. 

Additionally, service providers mentioned how unrealistically heavy caseloads for PSH case managers and staffing retention challenges due to the high burnout rate pose serious obstacles to their organizational stability as they work to support people experiencing chronic homelessness and help them move into available housing.

The Future of PSH

The Partnership to End Homelessness recognizes the importance of continuing to build the capacity of the PSH system and of our PSH providers.

In 2023, DCFPI released a landmark report, funded in part by the Partnership, that outlines specific recommendations for ending chronic homelessness and specifically for strengthening case management. The report’s recommendations – which were informed by frontline providers and people with lived experience of homelessness included the need to speed up the housing process and to strengthen case management services.

In addition to the report, the Partnership has also heard other ideas for innovation through our partnership with the Corporation for Supportive Housing who supported work to expand Medicaid benefits.

Over the next years, the Partnership will continue to bring together PSH providers to identify high impact innovation opportunities and pilot these ideas. By investing in innovative ideas informed by providers, case managers, and people with lived experience, we will identify impactful and scalable opportunities that sustain and accelerate our progress toward ending chronic homelessness in DC.