A Unique and Effective Multiyear Partnership to Expand Permanent Supportive Housing
by
Marcella Maguire, Director of Health Systems Integration, CSH
The Philadelphia Blueprint Project is a historic partnership among the city’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities (DBHIDS), the Office of Homeless Services, and the Housing Authority that aligns resources between affordable housing and Medicaid Supportive Services to create a unique and effective Supportive Housing Program that has housed 1,200 people since 2008. The Blueprint program has had an 87 percent success rate in preventing a return to homelessness for men and women who have serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and/or concurrent disorders and who have had long-term or chronic homelessness. The multi-year agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), known as the Blueprint, provides for a portion of affordable housing resources to be targeted to the community’s most vulnerable population—those sleeping on our streets—and combine them with services, creating a homegrown Permanent Supportive Housing program. Read more.
