Section 4: About Housing

Providers will face a range of needs around housing, from helping individuals decide among housing options to ensuring adequate supports are in place to maintain housing.

Be clear and honest with the client; never make promises you cannot keep.
Set realistic expectations and check in frequently.
Be responsive to client concerns and let client preferences guide the plan.

Once the client is housed, provide tenant education and supports to ensure compliance with the lease. Maximize available income by connecting clients with mainstream benefits to cover household expenses such as food, clothing, and health care. Identify community resources that provide free or low-cost goods and services. The goal is to give your client every chance to succeed.

Housing approaches

Responses to homelessness vary widely from community to community. The approaches described in this section are for organized efforts for getting people housed.

Permanent supportive housing

Permanent supportive housing is an evidence-based practice that combines affordable permanent rental housing with community-based services to address the treatment, rehabilitative, and recovery support needs of vulnerable individuals who have experienced homelessness or are at risk of homelessness and who have a behavioral health disability.

Permanent supportive housing is low-barrier housing that screens people in rather than out. It helps individuals with histories of chronic homelessness maintain housing and improve health and well-being, thereby lowering use of crisis services, such as shelters, hospitals, and jails.

Seven elements are considered essential to the success of permanent supportive housing (adapted from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)'s Permanent Supportive Housing Evidence-Based Practices KIT):

Tenants are allowed to choose where they live, rather than being assigned to a particular apartment/single room occupancy.
Housing and services, including case management, are distinct and are provided by separate entities. Thus, a tenant’s landlord is not also their service provider.
Housing meets HUD’s Housing Quality Standards, and tenants pay no more than 30% of income on rent and utilities.
Tenants live in housing open to people without disabilities or histories of homelessness.
Tenants have a standard lease with their landlord and are not held to unique rules or regulations due to participating in permanent supportive housing.
Access to housing is not based on the requirement that a tenant demonstrate some form of housing readiness.
Tenants choose from an array of services, and service use is not required to maintain housing.

When implementing permanent supportive housing, ask these questions.

Did staff complete any training in preparation for implementing permanent supportive housing?
If so, what kind?
What are the required steps a person must complete before becoming housed?
What kinds of services are offered, and how are they offered?

See SAMHSA’s Permanent Supportive Housing Evidence-Based Practices KIT for information on how to implement permanent supportive housing.

Finding housing

WIHousingSearch.org was created by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and Wisconsin Department of Administration to help people find safe, affordable, accessible and, when necessary, emergency housing.

HUD Resource Locator is a service of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It uses geolocation to find nearby subsidized housing as well as local public housing agencies and other resources. HUD also has a Wisconsin homepage that includes resources on homelessness, affordable places to live, and homeownership.

Rural Development Multi-Family Housing Rentals is a service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It allows searches by county, town, ZIP code, property name, or management agency name.

Community resources such as 211, churches, civic groups, and community action agencies may also be helpful in locating housing and other services.

Additional places to find housing include online posts, newspaper listings, and community bulletin boards. Many PATH workers have found housing while driving around neighborhoods seeking “for rent” signs.

Wait times for housing programs can be long or wait lists may be closed. It is important to get clients on as many wait lists as possible while looking for housing.

Paying for housing

Finding housing is one piece of the puzzle; paying for it is another. HUD offers several assisted housing programs, eligibility for which is determined primarily by income limits. Eligible incomes fall below 80% of the median family income limits set by HUD. To find information on median family income limits, go to HUD's income limits webpage.

Low-income families are defined as families whose incomes do not exceed 80% of the median family income for the area.
Very low-income families are defined as families whose incomes do not exceed 50% of the median family income for the area.
Extremely low income families do not exceed 30% of the median family income.

Fair market rents
HUD calculates fair market rents annually for each area in the nation. Fair market rent is the average amount that comparable units—roughly the same square footage, number of bedrooms, and housing type—rent for in the area. That figure is not necessarily the same amount as the actual market rent, which is what a unit would list for, and is usually a reflection of supply and demand. In large cities or metropolitan areas, the calculation is made using Small Area fair market rents, each of which focuses on average rents within just one ZIP code. Go to the HUD User Final Fair Market Rents Documentation System Portal to see rents statewide or by county.

Federal programs

The housing choice voucher program (referred to as Section 8) is HUD's largest rental assistance program, helping millions of households. It helps eligible families and individuals with low and moderate incomes afford housing by paying landlords the difference between what a household can afford for housing, plus utilities (30% of household income) and the rent itself. With a voucher, an eligible individual or family can select housing that meets certain requirements and for which the landlord or owner is willing to lease to PATH clients and to accept the vouchers. Vouchers are overseen by local public housing agencies, which pay a subsidy to the landlord. To find housing choice vouchers, contact the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. Households eligible for HUD vouchers must have incomes of no more than 80% of the area median income for the local county or city, though every public housing agency must earmark 75% of its vouchers to people whose incomes are 30% or less of the area median income.

Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program is another HUD-assisted housing program.

The USDA's Multifamily Housing Rental Assistance Program provides support for households with low or very-low incomes in rural areas. This operates like HUD’s housing choice voucher program: the USDA will pay the owner of a multifamily housing complex the difference between the tenant’s contribution (30% of adjusted income) and the monthly rental rate. Traditional housing subsidies through public housing authorities or housing choice voucher programs can be difficult to procure in rural communities.

Success story: helping Wayne secure stable housing

Wayne had been on the streets for nearly a decade, where he was the victim of repeated assaults and theft. After six months of receiving food and personal hygiene items from PATH program outreach staff, he walked into a PATH provider office asking for help. He was quickly connected with the outreach specialist to discuss services. Wayne enrolled in PATH and met with a client advocate to start an action plan. Over the course of the next two months, PATH helped Wayne apply for a replacement Social Security card and ID, locate and get to meal sites, and access temporary housing. Through a coordinated entry referral, Wayne was offered Permanent Supportive Housing. PATH and agency staff facilitated his move, answering his questions, assuaging his concerns, and securing household items. Wayne now has stable housing and has resumed medication for his long-standing, serious mental illness.

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