Oak Park agencies Family Service & Mental Health Center, Vital Bridges, and Thresholds have joined a recently formed five-agency coalition to provide permanent housing for homeless people who are mentally ill. The new program, born in March, is called the West Cook Housing Initiative Project (WCHIP).
“Persons who are homeless, especially those with a mental illness, have very few options available to them,” said Lynda Schueler, the director of West Suburban PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), another coalition member.
Schueler estimated that about 25 percent of the homeless people whom PADS serves are mentally ill. She said 122 of the 545 adults PADS assisted last year reported at their intake interview that they had mental issues. But because this data is based on self-reporting, Schueler believes the percentage of mental illness among the homeless population may be even higher.
PADS has been running a transitional housing program for its clients since 1996. The transitional concept is based on the assumption that clients have the potential to eventually make it on their own. The program requires that participants already have a job and have the mental and physical resources to be self-sustaining within a year.
Many who are both homeless and mentally ill, however, will never have the resources to be self-sustaining. Theresa Curran, of Pillars, another member of the coalition, has been providing services to the mentally ill for 19 years and has focused on homelessness for the last decade. The homeless who are mentally ill, she explained, typically are unable to sustain permanent housing on their own because of multiple factors: “inability to maintain employment, mismanagement of income, lack of financial resources, impaired ability to make sound judgments, frequent hospitalizations, etc.”
Realizing that the transitional housing model would never work for the mentally ill, West Suburban PADS began partnering with mental health, medical and substance abuse agencies in 2002 to address the problem in a more holistic way in a program they called Project WIN. When the West Cook Housing Coalition for Persons with Mental Health Disabilities was formed in 2003, Schueler saw the new organization as an opportunity to take the next step forward.
After two years of planning, receiving federal and state grants, and integrating the philosophies of five different agencies, the coalition was born this spring.
In addition to Pillars, a provider of mental health, addiction, domestic violence and sexual assault services to 26 communities; Family Service and Mental Health Center of OP-RF, a provider of behavioral health care and mental health recovery and wellness programs; Thresholds, which provides support, skills, and respectful encouragement to people with severe mental illness; Vital Bridges, which services people impacted by HIV and AIDS; and PADS which serves the homeless,
Family Service & Mental Health Center of Cicero, Hines VA Hospital, and the Metro Suburban branch of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) collaborate with the five partner agencies.
Pillars serves as the lead fiscal agent for the program.
Curran reported that since the program began in March, 16 previously homeless individuals and two families have already been enrolled. Thirty scattered site units will eventually be utilized throughout western Cook County. Twenty-five of these are one-bedroom units for individuals and five have two bedrooms and can therefore accommodate small families. Participants receive housing placement and rent subsidies, but what makes WCHIP especially fitting for the homeless who are mentally ill is the supportive services provided. These include case management and housing management services, life-skills training and supportive counseling.
And the federal and state governments are picking up a big percentage of the tab.
“I think the government believes that the government can’t solve all the issues,” Schueler stated as she reflected on how social service delivery has changed since the War on Poverty in the 1960s. “I think the federal government is looking to the private sector to pick up some of the slack, if you will. The local communities know what they need. The federal government doesn’t have that local perspective. There’s more trust that private/local agencies will deliver.”
Kyu Kim, a caseworker with Family Services of Oak Park, said the program works like this: As a caseworker, he can refer his own clients to WCHIP or he can receive a referral from other agencies and pass them on to the review board which consists of one member from each of the coalition’s five participating agencies. He completes a lengthy review form and presents the case to the board.
When clients are approved, they not only receive a place to live in one of the scattered sites, but also get two hours of management and support from their caseworker. Kim said this process is relatively intense, compared to the half hour that he is able to give his other clients each week. The goal is to give clients both the stability and sense of self they need to make therapeutic progress.
Another difference Schueler noted, is that the federal government seems less inclined to believe that one size fits all. The concept HUD promotes, according to Schueler, is referred to as the “continuum of care.”
“Basically it’s a planning process to identify and fill gaps in services,” she said. “It brings together all the stakeholders from the community to address the issues at the local level.”
Curran is passionate about the work her agency and this new coalition are doing. “This program really works,” she said, “and the services of Pillars and our community partners are changing lives every day, and making our communities stronger. Some of our clients have no or very few people besides us in their lives to count on. A long-term relationship with a caring professional really can change a life.”
We asked Teri Curran of Pillars, one of the five social service agencies combining to form the West Cook Housing Initiative Project (WCHIP), to give a quick overview on how the program works:
Wednesday Journal: How many people have been housed so far?
Teri Curan: We have placed 16 clients so far in apartments.
WJ: How many are in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park?
Curran: Four out of 16 clients (25 percent) are in Oak Park; others are in Berwyn, Cicero, Justice, Elmwood Park, etc.
WJ: What happens if they can’t make a go of it?
Curran: If a client isn’t eligible for the program and therefore not accepted, or once accepted into the program is unable to live independently for various reasons, such as medical issues, etc., we have found alternative housing options-referring several to the Thresholds Safe Haven program and other housing programs that the collaborating partner agencies are involved with. This is one of the benefits of this program, as we have the ability to access all the resources of the partner agencies in WCHIP. We also meet as a team every other week so the staff working with the clients can specifically address any concerns, issues, etc. that have arisen that potentially would affect the client’s ability to sustain independent living. We can utilize the expertise and resources of partner agencies. For example, we can refer a client to a day treatment program or a vocational rehab program at Pillars or Thresholds (PADS doesn’t have one) to provide additional support.
WJ: Can you give an example of a client who did make a go of it?
Curran: One of the first clients accepted into the program was residing in his van for a period of time and had been homeless many times over the past several years. He had always resided with someone else when he did obtain housing.
The case manager first assisted him-after finding an apartment in the area where he wished to reside-in acquiring furniture/household belongings from Shared Connections, and also arranged for a moving van and volunteers to transport the belongings to his apartment. The case manager then assisted the client in setting up the apartment and taking him shopping for necessary food and other supplies.
The case manager coordinated services with other staff involved in his treatment and developed a plan to assist him during the week-everything from budgeting his funds on a monthly basis to meal preparation. This process took several months, but now this client is giving back by volunteering with organizations to assist the homeless as a consumer advocate.
