Supportive housing
[21] Today, important new populations for supported housing in regular neighborhoods include working families, especially those with high proportional housing costs, older adults who need intensive (enriched) services to avoid nursing home placements, and people who need places to live due to the closure of the old style, institutional psychiatric care.[23] This idea is also referred to as the Housing First model, an approach to combating chronic homelessness by providing homes upfront and offering help for illnesses and addictions.The CICH evaluation showed that average costs for healthcare and treatment were reduced by about half, which the largest decline associated with inpatient hospital care.For example, one 2016 report identified studies documenting that these services can reduce health care costs, emergency department visits, and length of stays in psychiatric hospitals.According to a 2007 study done by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, supportive housing helps tenants increase their incomes, work more, get arrested less, make more progress toward recovery, and become more active, valued and productive members of their communities.Examples include new housing developments, after-school programs, parent support groups, respite care and similar initiatives in the field of children's mental health.[39] Where traditional solutions—institutions, charitable organizations or other methods—are recognized as inadequate solutions for the situation, national, regional and local officials have come to believe that homelessness is a problem that can and should be solved by other means.The goal: put the homeless people with complex situations and needs into permanent or transitional "supportive" housing with counseling services that help them get healthy lifestyles of their own choosing.The evidence shows supportive housing may be a viable solution: the number of street people in cities across the United States has plummeted for the first time since the 1980s.Current arguments are that supportive housing often reduces the cost of emergency services for health care provided by governmental and non-profit agencies.[47] The chronically homeless, the 10-20% who are continually on the street with addiction and mental problems impose heavy costs on their communities in hospital, jail and other services—hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece annually in some instances.[1] In the field of intellectual disabilities, the term supportive living is more common with decongregated, small size homes and apartments with choice options throughout local communities.