The Community Bridging to Housing First Project offers support and rent supplements to people who are homeless.  Staff work in partnership with other organizations and services to find housing and assist people in the transition from homelessness to being housed.  We receive many applications as information about our program is shared in the community usually by word of mouth, or by other organizations.  Individuals know that they can access our program to be a support system for the services that they require.  The only requirement of the program is that the person is homeless.  We complete a vulnerability assessment that helps us understand each person’s history and challenges as well as strengths and needs for support.  We do our best to match their needs to available housing and make it known to clients that the program is only able to fund a certain number of subsidies each year through our application process and that there is a wait list.

As such, our team has been working with more agencies to ensure that community members are able to have access to all supports that they seek, and we ensure that they are getting the assistance that they are needing. Once we refer clients to other agencies, we always let them know that they can come back and ask for more help if they feel that they have not gotten the assistance that they were seeking.  And, if they come back to us feeling like we sent them to the wrong place, we continue to meet with them until they are happy with the services required.  Our organization may not always be able to assist individuals through our programs, but we work with all individuals to ensure that their needs are met.