Supportive Housing Offers: an opportunity for homeless children to achieve academic success

Over time, as the Supportive Housing Initiative addressed facility stabilization needs, the Provider Group turned their attention to the program service needs of their residents. Specifically, the Provider Group members identified residents’ unaddressed mental illness and chemical dependency as a primary obstacle to parents’ ability to retain custody of their children and comply with lease obligations. The providers also felt that mental and chemical health disorders were widely under-diagnosed in the children themselves, leading to behavioral problems that threatened the family’s housing and the children’s school success. In addition, the Provider Group has long identified direct services for children as a priority, particularly those aimed at promoting health, early childhood development, academic success, and parent-child relationships. Therefore, in 2005, the Fund and the Provider Group launched the Healthy Families Network, later renamed The Visible Child Initiative, under which agencies share mental health, chemical health, and children’s services for residents.