Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, TAC assisted Louisiana state officials, homeless and disability advocates, and local housing and human service organizations to design, develop, and implement Louisiana’s cross-disability 3,000 unit Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) initiative, a critical part of the state’s Road Home hurricane recovery plan. Louisiana’s PSH program was the nation’s first state PSH initiative financed through sustainable mainstream affordable housing and services funding – and became a model for federal supportive housing legislation enacted in 2010.
Through generous multi-year grants from the Melville Charitable Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TAC assisted Louisiana officials to develop state-level policy and partnerships that systematically offer access to a pipeline of integrated affordable housing units synchronized with a regional infrastructure network for outreach, housing referral, and service delivery. TAC provided direct technical assistance and support for Louisiana’s housing and health and human service agencies on all aspects program implementation, including capacity building and training for local providers on best practice supportive housing service delivery. TAC also assisted with the development and implementation of data tracking and performance outcome measurement systems, and conducted an early implementation evaluation of the initiative.
Beginning in 2011, TAC has supported Louisiana’s PSH initiative though contracts with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) and the Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC). Currently, close to 2,500 units are under lease with housing retention rates approximating 95 percent, and a reduction in average monthly Medicaid costs per person of 24 percent. TAC is also assisting with the state’s transition to sustainable services funding through Medicaid, and with transitioning PSH outreach, referral, and service coordination functions to the new statewide management organization for behavioral health services.
