Our Transitional Housing Program is for homeless families, and often we work with families who are in reunification stages with their children. Helping the parents heal and assisting the family reunify is a complex and essential job. We are committed to assisting homeless families to achieve stable, permanent housing and financial independence. Our 54-bed transitional housing program is designed to successfully transition homeless families with children off the streets and into safe, permanent housing. When a homeless family enters our program, they need a safe place in a loving community to help them overcome their emotional, spiritual and physical trauma. We tailor our service delivery to address each family’s goals to become self-sufficient.
To be eligible for our programs, an individual or family must qualify as homeless and be able to go back to work. Each family seeking transitional shelter participates in an interview with a Case Manager to gather information on income, housing status, demographic information, job status, history of domestic violence, mental illness, and substance abuse.
Entering our program, a homeless family might face difficulties unique to their situation. The first step is to address their immediate, basic needs for shelter, food, and clothing. But more importantly, we need to address what led them to their homelessness. We pair all residents with a Case Manager who walks with them as they overcome barriers to permanent housing and financial self-sufficiency. The Case Manager helps them establish an individualized case plan, including short and long-term goals and objectives. We work with all the people in our Transitional Housing Program, providing concrete action steps for them to take to transition out of homelessness:
- clear DMV records so that they can drive,
- stabilize mental health,
- provide support to navigate through family reunification
- obtain full-time employment
- increase income, pay off debt, save for emergencies
- learn the importance of healthy parenting practices
The Case Manager meets with the family every week to evaluate the progress of the case plan and offers additional support and additional referral service if needed. The family also participates in a financial literacy course that helps them create step-by-step personal finance plans to tackle their specific needs and repair credit.
Once a family has established themselves in a career and built up enough savings, the Housing Navigator will offer assistance in helping them transition out of our program and into low-income housing. The Housing Navigator provides one-on-one support to help the residents identify what they need to sustain independent living and never return to homelessness. The family works one-on-one with the Housing Navigator to develop a housing plan which includes scheduling housing appointments, identifying subsidized housing, applying for additional public benefits, and or connecting the residents to partner agencies. HIS-OC has a 7% rate of recidivism for residents who have graduated from the program, making it among the county’s lowest rates. We help them home . . . for good.