Second Day of Summit

The CSH Summit: Supportive Housing Innovations is in its second day here in Chicago and the intensity surrounding the discussions has taken our learning and sharing to a whole new level.

During breakout sessions, over 80 experts have guided us in focusing on how to create better incentives so more supportive housing is developed at a faster pace -- ways to leverage innovate financing, such as what the Los Angeles Department of Health Services is doing to pay for housing and services -- as well as Pay for Success funding models that maximize and add to available resources.

Also, a lot of attention is being paid to where communities are successfully integrating services to more effectively identify and serve vulnerable people, not only those experiencing homelessness and in need of affordable housing with support services, but families unstably housed, youth leaving foster care and at risk of homelessness, those entering communities from prisons and jails with nowhere to go, and child welfare-involved families.

Our most popular breakouts, action labs and fireside chats have focused on how vital stable housing is to a person's access to healthcare and health outcomes. Housing as a social determinant of health is a topic that will undoubtedly occupy much of the supportive housing landscape going forward, including new initiatives to engage hospital systems in the dialogue, using Medicaid to pay for valuable services attached to housing, and how we are seeing real progress in programs designed to reduce the over-utilization of emergency, crisis care, emphasizing instead preventative and primary medical and mental health treatments.