Life often comes along with a series of unexpected events, some of which may lead us toward unfavorable circumstances. A prominent factor that often gets affected by negative circumstances is our housing situation. These circumstances can directly cause some individuals and families to lose their homes.

Some people may live in homes, however, might be in stressful situations due to abuse or poor living conditions. This may lead some people to live on the streets or other less-than-ideal solutions.

The correct course of action is to find an appropriate housing situation, fitting for the individuals, their families, as well as their financial status. To help out with the process, the federal government, along with other organizations created a series of programs to help citizens find homes in which they plan out their next steps. These programs we refer to as Transitional Housing.

What Exactly is Transitional Housing?

Transitional housing is a temporary housing solution offered through different programs created by the government, as well as private organizations such as religious groups. The idea is to assist individuals and families who are struggling with proper and safe housing ‘transition’ eventually to their permanent homes.

Transitional Housing can come in a wide variety of solutions, ranging from emergency shelters to permanent housing solutions. The availability of solutions differs from one state to the other and also depends on a family/individual’s status, ability to wait, and eligibility.

Who Should I Go To For My Transitional Housing?

The Federal government has mostly delegated the task of Transitional Housing to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), except for a few projects that we’ll discuss later on in the article. Moreover, there are plenty of private organizations that not only provide housing solutions for the homeless and low-income families but will also provide extra services that help improve people’s lives, leading them towards more stable lives in the future.

Those private organizations include religious groups, non-profit organizations, private homeless shelters, and many others. The idea is to know what kind of housing you’re looking for at the time and who can provide it best.

In this article, we’ll arrange our solutions from the most temporary, to the most permanent. Oftentimes the more temporary a housing solution would be, the lesser its wait time would be as well.

Shelters

Homeless Shelters

As the name suggests, homeless shelters are places homeless people have probably come across for at least a night’s sleep. The idea behind homeless shelters is to provide an immediate roof to those who need it. The idea of homeless shelters is to provide a safe environment for those without homes to spend a resting night, rather than spending the night on the street.

Homeless shelters usually provide short-term stay opportunities, but are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the needy. Homeless shelters usually operate on a first-come-first-serve basis, which means that whoever walks up to their doors first gets priority access to a bed to rest their heads on. This brings us to the next point, homeless shelters will only provide services to those who visit them in person, which eliminates the option of acquiring their services through the internet or phone.

Finally, homeless shelters usually provide overnight stays, during which they provide food and/or medical services if available. At the end of the stay, homeless shelters will often refer their visitors to other shelters in the city/county.

Emergency Shelters

Emergency shelters are homeless shelters but are focused on people going through emergencies. Be it domestic violence, teenage runaways, or people displaced due to disasters, Emergency shelters will have their doors open. In these shelters, medical and psychological counseling is often available to help victims of such unfortunate circumstances.

Side note: For those experiencing domestic violence or unsafe domestic circumstances, you should call The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Operators are available round the clock and well-trained to provide reliable assistance in different situations. You can also use the online chat option to reach professional help.

The National Runaway Safeline is also available for teen runaways. They’re a great resource to find out what you should do if you find yourself in such a dilemma. You can also call them on 1800-RUN-AWAY.

Transitional Shelters

Transitional shelters are focused a lot more on longer-term stays. Unlike homeless shelters and emergency shelters, transitional shelters will take tenants in for anywhere between 6 months and 24 months.

During that period, transitional shelters will work with their tenants on improving their lives, whether by helping get jobs, providing them with medical/psychological assistance, or helping them plan out their upcoming futures. The main idea behind transitional shelters is to help homeless people start on the path towards permanent homes, by finding out how they can reach that goal, and what their best paths towards it might be.

Rapid Re-housing

This form of transitional housing is custom-tailored to solve homelessness. Rapid Re-housing focuses on tackling homelessness by addressing the main causes behind it. While the program offers housing, its main goal is to help improve the overall living standards of homeless people. They can do this by removing the factors that lead them towards homelessness. Some of these factors can be substance abuse, mental/physical difficulty, and being unemployable, among many others.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Rapid  Re-housing aims to end homelessness by “connecting people with a home. They are in a better position to address other challenges that may have led to their homelessness, such as obtaining employment or addressing substance abuse issues. The intervention has also been effective for people traditionally perceived to be more difficult to serve, including people with limited or no income and survivors of domestic violence.” Research shows that Rapid Re-housing is far more effective at eliminating homelessness than other shelters. The results show that people who have gone through rapid re-housing had more success at overcoming the challenges that made their lives difficult from the start.

The program consists of 3 steps:

• Housing identification where program participants are matched with appropriate homes. That is a process that starts with recruiting competent landlords, assigning special-trained staff to every case, and making sure the participant has a choice of the house they’ll end up living in.
• Rent and move-in assistance, which includes paying for the costs and fees involved, as well as providing the logistics necessary to ease the process.
• Case management where designated case managers will start the process of helping participants tackle their challenges and regularly check on them to monitor their progress.

Permanent Supportive Housing

The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines Permanent Supportive Housing as “permanent housing in which housing assistance (e.g., long-term leasing or rental assistance) and supportive services are provided to assist households with at least one member (adult or child) with a disability in achieving housing stability.”

The supportive services mentioned above include:

• Annual Assessment of Services
• Moving costs
• Case management
• Childcare
• Education services
• Employment assistance and job training
• Food
• Housing search and counseling services
• Legal services
• Life skills training
• Mental health services
• Outpatient health services
• Outreach services
• Substance abuse treatment services
• Transportation
• Utility deposits

The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines disability as any permanent physical or developmental disability, also including chronic mental diseases.

How Can I Apply For Transitional Housing?

Now that we have identified your potential Transitional Housing options, let’s take a look at how you can start your search, confirm your eligibility, and put yourself on the path to acquiring your transitional home.

Shelters

Whether it’s homeless shelters, emergency shelters, or transitional shelters that you’re looking for, we highly recommend this map, it includes a directory of all shelters across the nation. The map is divided according to each state. All you need to do is click on your state, scroll down on the alphabetically-arranged list to find your city, and you’ll find the shelters within that city, including their contact information.

Rapid Re-housing

This application process can be a bit more in-depth than other housing assistance opportunities. That’s because this form of transitional housing is typically a more permanent option. Not only is it generally more permanent, but it also provides supportive services!

Let’s go through a rundown of the requirements for the program, as well as the qualifying criteria that applicants must meet.

Requirements for applicants:

• Must be 18 years of age or older
• If not 18 years old, must provide documentation of legal emancipation
• Household income is at or below 30 percent of Section 8 area median income
• Households that require more than one month’s financial assistance must agree to work with and receive aftercare services from a Housing Stabilization Specialist
• Households must be referred from Emergency or Transitional Housing and meet the HUD definition of “literally homeless”

Factors that may disqualify you from the program, according to HousingForHomless.org:

• Serious criminal record
• Sexual offender/predator or murder/manslaughter
• Past evictions

Necessary documents:

• Driver’s license or state ID (Must be 18 years old or above)
• Birth certificate for everyone in the household
• Social security card for everyone in the household
• 3 months of current bank statement
• Verification of income

Applicants should contact their local Public Housing Authority (PHA). From there, they can inquire about their transitional housing options and any extra information on eligibility. There are other organizations such as HousingForHomeless.org that are willing to receive your application and process it for you. You can check their website, or you can call them on 321-639-0166.

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)

This form of transitional housing will focus on families that are experiencing homelessness. Not only will families need to be dealing with homelessness, but they will need to meet family status requirements. Their family must include at least one member who struggles with disabilities. It can be physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, or chronic mental diseases.

To qualify for a PSH program the individual or family must:

• be literally homeless;
• Have a member of a household that contains at least one documented disabled adult or minor living with an adult legal guardian
• be a member of a low-income household

The Permanent Supportive Housing program is a transitional housing program that is based on a priority system. The higher an applicant is on the priority list, the higher their chance is to be first in line to enter the program.

First Priority: Chronically homeless individuals and families with the longest history of homelessness and with the most severe service needs

Second Priority: Homeless individuals and families with a disability with long periods of episodic homelessness and severe service needs

Third Priority: Homeless individuals and families with a disability with severe service needs

Fourth Priority: Homeless individuals and families with a disability without severe service need

Fifth Priority: Homeless Individuals and families with a disability coming from transitional housing (and resided on the street or in shelters prior to entering transitional housing)

Just like with Rapid Re-housing, applicants for Permanent Supportive Housing must check in with their local Public Housing Authority for the most reliable information on the program and application process.

Conclusion

If you’re currently going through a housing crisis, whether it’s due to low income,  personal challenges, or distressful domestic circumstances, there’s a transitional housing program for you.  You can check the map for homeless shelters or emergency shelters. If you can wait for a while, you should also check out Transitional shelters.

There are a variety of options that may be able to help. It’s important to keep in mind that you should check with your local Public Housing Authority (PHA). They can provide up-to-date and accurate information about Transitional housing for your area.