Program Spotlight: Rapid Rehousing
“Housing matters and safe and affordable housing matters, and understanding that it's not the people don't want to do better, it's that it's a lot harder than it looks.” –Shyanne Urban, RApid Rehousing Progam Manager.
Gina had finally taken her young daughter and fled her abusive partner, but she had done so with no job, no savings, and nowhere to go. She had unresolved chronic health problems she’d been unable to seek treatment for due to lack of access to health care, and she’d developed severe CPTSD from the ongoing strain of living with daily emotional abuse. Her physical and mental health symptoms made it difficult to get out of bed most days, let alone hold down a job. On top of it all, she had begun taking unprescribed pills to get through days filled with physical pain along with mental and emotional anguish. She first went to her mother’s house but was unable to stay for long. Gina’s relationship with her family was strained, and her mother was volatile and frequently verbally abusive, constantly threatening to kick Gina and her daughter out onto the street. The continuous stress and mistreatment brought Gina to her breaking point. Desperate for reprieve, she took her daughter and left.
Through Cleveland’s Journey Center for Safety and Healing, she and her daughter entered shelter. Seeing that Gina’s situation required more complex supports in addition to housing, from Journey Center she received a referral to FrontLine Service’s Rapid Rehousing (RRH) program where she was put into contact with Shyanne Urban, Program Manager. Shyanne took the time to sit down with us recently and explain how RRH operates to provide a comprehensive system of supports in order to address all of a client’s outstanding needs and help them get the best footing for ongoing success. Shyanne says that often, especially with clients who are escaping their perpetrators, people do require additional supports to get back on their feet. They are often starting over from scratch and need everything from housing to furnishings, to basic necessities, to new employment and ongoing mental health treatment in order to stabilize. Going about obtaining that many vital resources in a short amount of time, while already navigating being unsheltered and having untreated health conditions by oneself can be daunting if not altogether unfeasible.
Clients entering RRH programming are assigned a Case Manager who will quickly arrange to meet with them and assess their needs, helping them make a plan. But RRH’s name is apt – the program only lasts for a maximum of 12 months – not a lot of time to accomplish so many things, all of which are critical for survival. Shyanne says the last few months of programming are especially crucial for making sure a client is prepared and stable, because it’s “more of a hard drop” out of the program rather than a gradual paring back of supports. That’s why, in addition to rental assistance and help applying for housing, clients are also offered linkages to other supportive services they may need and help applying for them, along with life skills, budgeting and household management coaching, and more.
She says it can be challenging to have to release one’s working relationship with the clients – especially since many of them take time to open up. Shyanne states that, “When they realize they’re leaving is when they really become vulnerable.” She says on the workers’ end it’s important to practice self-care, resiliency, and managing expectations, because there will always be some level of pain that goes along with the work. That’s why focusing on the wins is so important. Watching a client achieve something like re-entering housing, navigating their recovery process, going through the process of obtaining essential documents, finding employment, or “Whatever the case may be for the person towards their individual goals,” is important for staying positive. When asked if there was something she wished the public knew about RRH clients, Shyanne said it would be, “Being vulnerable to ask for change, making change, doing things that are uncomfortable when you don't know where to start or how to do it is tough and so mental health care matters, putting funding into preventative care matters. Housing matters and safe and affordable housing matters, and understanding that it's not that people don't want to do better, it's that it's a lot harder than it looks.”
Working with her Case Manager, Gina was able to identify the first step in her process to stabilization was to get her physical and mental health needs addressed so that she would then be able to address her substance use that she was using to cope with pain and CPTSD symptoms. Once her health care needs were addressed and she had established an ongoing treatment regimen, Gina then felt ready to tackle her recovery process. By the end of her program, Gina was able to gain and maintain housing and a long-term housing voucher in addition to part-time employment. Shyanne says that “She continues to face her challenges head-on and has become a beacon of hope for what this program can offer to those who participate in their growth.”