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LOUISIANA PSH Initiative
TAC is working in partnership with the State of Louisiana and local stakeholders to create the nation's first comprehensive cross-disability 3,000 unit Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Initiative. With support from the Melville Charitable Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Louisiana is developing a ground-breaking PSH system serving all vulnerable populations with the most significant and long term disabilities who can benefit from the PSH approach, including people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness, as well as people who are unnecessarily institutionalized or at-risk of institutionalization.Louisiana's PSH Initiative relies primarily on an integrated scattered-site PSH model that includes small set-asides of PSH units in affordable housing developments being created with Hurricane Katrina-Rita Recovery funds. As of February of 2010, approximately 750 PSH units had been occupied by priority PSH tenants, and more than 100 new PSH units are being added to the program every month. Expansion of local PSH service delivery capacity is also occurring across Louisiana's hurricane-affected areas through the creation of mobile cross-disability Housing Support Teams. TAC is providing policy support to state officials, and implementation support to local service agencies as this groundbreaking PSH initiative goes to scale.Louisiana's PSH Initiative has been funded within the Louisiana Recovery Authority's $10 billion Road Home hurricane recovery plan approved by the federal government. State officials and PSH advocates waged a successful two-year campaign to obtain $73 million in funding for 3,000 new project-based rental subsidies (2,000 Housing Choice Vouchers and 1,000 Shelter Plus Care subsidies) awarded by Congress in the summer of 2008. More than $300 million of federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds targeted for capital and support services, and $300 million in equity from Gulf Opportunity Zone Low Income Housing Tax credits has also been made available to create and sustain Louisiana's new PSH system and help Louisiana end chronic homelessness and reduce reliance on nursing homes, institutions and other restrictive settings.
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