Implementing supported housing in state and local mental health systems

The Ohio Department of Mental Health has aggressively promoted the development of supported housing--affordable, permanent community housing along with a system of needed support services--for adults with serious mental illness. The authors outline the development of supported housing programs by the state and by Franklin County, Ohio, beginning in the mid-1980s. The county's program, implemented mainly through the county authority for substance abuse and mental health services and a separate nonprofit housing corporation, was assisted by a major grant and loan from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program on Chronic Mental Illness, federal Section 8 housing certificates, and special grants from the Ohio Department of Mental Health. Both the state and the county formulated and followed comprehensive housing development plans. Both entities used creative financing mechanisms, including leveraging, to bring in additional public and private funds, and they worked to involve consumers and families in formulating policies and developing services.