Housing Matters for Families: Promising Practices from Child Welfare Agencies

There is growing acknowledgement that housing can provide more than shelter, a basic need. Housing can also act as a foundation, helping families stay together.The provision of housing as a prevention or protective strategy against child maltreatment has not been widely used by child welfare agencies. A small subset of child welfare agencies across the country, however, is incorporating housing into their response to cases of child abuse and neglect. Using qualitative data from ongoing studies of HUD's Family Unification Program (FUP) and the Children's Bureau supportive housing demonstration for high-need child welfare involved families, we describe some of the promising practices agencies are implementing and testing. Though evaluations of these programs are not yet complete, there is a lot the field can learn from these approaches. This paper provides an overview of seven promising strategies: (1) partnering with public housing agencies and leveraging resources; (2) assessing the housing needs of child welfare involved families; (3) triaging and providing housing resources based on needs; (4) providing housing first, not. last; (5) developing housing stability plans and shared case plans; (6) screening families into housing, rather than screening out; and (7) providing housing search assistance.