History

The Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot. Hearth Connection was created in 1999 as a result of a community planning and design process that asked people in the health care, human services and housing sectors – in partnership with advocates and people experiencing homelessness – to envision a system that would get better results for people with long histories of homelessness, mental illness, chemical dependency and other chronic health conditions. On June 25, 1997, the design group released a blueprint for the Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot. Hearth Connection was charged with maintaining the balance of interests of all the Pilot’s stakeholders while championing, administering and evaluating the Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot.

The Minnesota Legislature made its first investment in the Pilot in the 2000 Legislative Session. Operation of the Pilot began in 2001, with Hearth Connection managing the project on behalf of Ramsey and Blue Earth Counties. Through partnerships with county and non-profit social service agencies, the Pilot has supported 737 participants, including 159 families with 349 children and 140 single adults, all with long and complex histories of homelessness.

Hearth Connection contracts with teams operated out of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Mental Health Resources, Inc., Guild Incorporated and two teams out of Blue Earth County Human Services. Teams respond to each participant’s unique needs and goals by working directly with them as well as with the public and private systems for health care, mental health care, chemical dependency services, housing, employment and training, corrections and other community supports. It is a strengths-based, consumer-focused Housing First model, emphasizing building trust, using flexibility, creativity and perseverance, being trauma-informed and culturally competent. Their work is grounded in best practices and promising approaches, including harm reduction, motivational interviewing and elements of Assertive Community Treatment.

The Boston-based National Center on Family Homelessness is conducting an evaluation of the Pilot. The evaluation is one of the most comprehensive research studies on supportive housing, looking at both families and single adults in urban and rural areas. The evaluation looks at the formation and operation of the Pilot, as well as the characteristics of participants, and changes over time in a broad range of life areas. There is a special study looking at children in the Pilot, their histories and unique challenges, and how the Pilot is helping support them. A cost and utilization study looks at the utilization of government-funded services prior to enrollment when people are homeless, and after they have joined the Pilot. There is an administratively-matched comparison group that will demonstrate the impact of the Pilot on participants and the use of scarce government resources.

The Pilot officially ended on June 30, 2007. The five teams operating in Blue Earth and Ramsey County have become a part of two regional long-term homeless projects managed by Hearth Connection.

The MN Department of Human Services published a Report to the Legislature for the Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot.