Housing Services
Housing is central to community vitality and economic prosperity.
At OrgCode, we realize that housing is more than just your address;
it is a source of your psychological stability and your connection to society. Housing development is also a key indicator in the economic success of any community, neighborhood, or municipality.
For an effective community plan, housing must play an important role. A range of housing types and levels of affordability are necessary to meet the accommodation needs of any community. At OrgCode, we provide a full continuum of effective housing services tailored to your locality.
Services
Housing Strategy Development
Housing Needs & Demands Assessment
Housing Supports
Supportive and Alternative Housing
Transforming From One Housing Model to Another
Pre-development and Feasibility Analysis
Systems Integration
Housing Services, Financial & Operational Assessment
Performance Measurement, Quality Assurance & Data in Effective Housing Programs
Housing Education and Community Awareness & Capacity Building
Housing Strategy Development
We create community, municipal, and regional housing strategies, as well as contributing to national housing policy development. Our approach is to undertake community-based housing research, identify and work with persons of influence in housing policy and development, and balance these two sources of information. We believe that a Community Housing Strategy should reflect the needs of the community as determined through a transparent and credible process, and be corroborated with evidence.
Our recommendations on housing policy and strategy are developed through three dimensions of the housing continuum: age, support level, and type of accommodation. After developing recommendations, we prioritize the recommendations and develop implementation plans.
Housing Needs & Demands Assessment
Orgcode uses a combination of a diverse range of data – qualitative and quantitative – to undertake housing need and demand assessments. We can undertake these for a specific population or as a community, municipality or region as a whole. Over the last 10 years, we have drawn on considerable knowledge of modeling and use of census, housing, planning, household formation, economic, labor force participation and other similar data to develop a powerful housing model. This proprietary model allows us to accurately create scenarios of housing needs and demands for specific populations and the community, municipality or region as a whole.
Housing Supports
We help communities, service providers and social/human service departments arrange an array of supports to help people maintain their housing when people are housed in a scattered site model (for information on our work with on-site supports, see Supportive and Alternative Housing). This ranges from specific supports for unaccompanied youth through to frail and elderly seniors; persons with complex behavioral issues through to families of unique sizes and composition; and just about any variation in between. Our focus is on empowerment and just access to benefits and community services. We have found that this approach helps people achieve greater and sustained independence over time.
Supportive and Alternative Housing
We have considerable expertise in housing models that have on-site supports. This ranges from smaller scale homes through to multi-unit apartment buildings. It also ranges from 24 hour on-site supports through to business hour supports. At OrgCode, we know that different populations that are housed in supportive and alternative housing benefit from different types of program support models and different levels of interaction with staff. We are accustomed to designing supportive and/or alternative housing models for varied populations, including: substance users that benefit from a harm reduction approach to their housing; persons with moderate or serious mental illness; youth; persons with a history of conflict with the law; First Nations people leaving reserve; newcomers; older adults; and various combinations thereof.
Transforming from One Housing Model to Another
We realize that some housing providers and many entire communities are at a place where they are making a transition in their housing stock to meet new and emerging needs. This occurs in various ways. We have helped some organizations transform their transitional housing into “transition in place”, into below market rental housing and into supportive housing. We have helped other organizations transform their housing model to focus on specific populations to be served, such as households at a certain low-income percentile. We also have expertise in helping build community within their building and neighborhood, allowing for more co-operative and community integrated approaches to building community.
Pre-development and Feasibility Analysis
Changes in funding and housing policy, as well as seemingly ever-changing market conditions can make even the exploration of getting involved in developing or purchasing affordable housing daunting. We have expertise in planning, development and economics that can help your organization or community explore various approaches to successfully move from an idea through to capital funding and building development.
Systems Integration
In order to provide effective housing services, an integrated approach is vital. OrgCode assists with the coordination of social service delivery by mapping systems, finding interconnections, identifying gaps, and eliminating duplications. We evaluate the effectiveness of system integration and advise on the strategic position of resources within the community. This assists in improving housing stability and optimizes use of community resources.
Housing Services, Financial and Operational Assessments
Many housing programs were built or purchased with specific expectations of which services would be offered, how it would function financial or how the operations would be performed or governed. We know that sometimes organizations or communities find themselves with projects in difficulty. Our approach is to undertake a strength-based third party assessment and examine how the housing can be improved. We make specific recommendations for improvement with an implementation plan and metrics to observe. We work with Executive Directors, Board of Directors, Program & Building Managers to ensure that the assessment is understood, accepted and action steps are taken to move forward. In the worst case scenario, we have expertise helping to wind down housing programs which can include receivership with another local entity, sale or transfer to another provider.
Performance Measurement, Quality Assurance & Data in Effective Housing Programs
We help housing providers and entire communities of service providers better use their data to better understand the types of housing and housing models, as well as support models that are most likely going to have a lasting impact on addressing current needs. At OrgCode, we help design performance measurement programs to assist housing providers and the community undertake continuous improvement. We help implement quality assurance programs to help local evaluators and leaders assess where their housing programs are at and how to improve. We also help mine existing data sets to help improve housing programs.
Housing Education and Community Awareness & Capacity Building
OrgCode is aware of main currents of thought and practice in a wide range of housing issues. This happens through our consulting work, as well as our alignment with various academic institutions (and that fact that one of the Partners teaches Housing in the Graduate Planning Programme at York University). We use this education as an empowerment tool and to address a range of community issues from how to transform “NIMBY” to “YIMBY”; how to get communities aware and interested in housing issues; and, how to build capacity amongst housing providers and housing supporters. We are accustomed to making presentations to a wide range of audiences on housing and related matters.
Examples
City of London
London, Ontario
OrgCode prepared a Community Housing Strategy for the City of London, Ontario that focused on a housing continuum. The report used a range of data from various sources, and was developed through more than 40 hours of community consultation, an extensive document review including more than 7,000 pages of information, and over 80 interviews with people with lived experience. The report included specific projections on affordable housing and supportive housing demands over the next five years, and provided recommendations on housing support models for different populations. The report can be found on the City of London website: http://www.housing.london.ca/LCHSJune2010Report.pdf
Corporation for Supportive Housing & Homeless Action Network Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
OrgCode is working with the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Homeless Action Network Detroit to improve the use of data in informing housing and homeless programs and strategies.
Housing Services Department
County of Lambton, Ontario
OrgCode prepared an Affordable Housing Strategy for the County of Lambton – which includes both urban and rural areas, and is in close proximity to three First Nations reserves. The report included specific recommendations on special needs and supportive housing, as well as housing needs and demands over the next ten years. The report also included commentary on various housing support models to increase community integration and access throughout the County.
Community and Social Development
City of Lethbridge, Alberta
OrgCode worked with the City of Lethbridge, First Nations Elders and Leaders, representatives from other orders of government, and a range of community partners on housing support models and supportive and alternative housing models for various populations including: 1. Chronically homeless persons; 2. Persons with complex medical, substance use and/or behavioural issues; 3. Persons with an extensive history of conflict with the law (ex-offenders); 4. Youth; 5. First Nations people moving off-reserve.
Department of Human Services
District of Columbia
At the request of the Department of Human Services, OrgCode provided a workshop on various types of housing support models for populations with a diverse range of presenting issues. The workshop was provided to housing and service providers throughout Washington, DC.
Community Housing Advisory Board
Red Deer, Alberta
OrgCode was requested to make a presentation to the Community Housing Advisory Board in Red Deer. The board is comprised of local experts in housing, community members, service providers and local city councillors. The intent of the presentation was to explain how various populations achieve housing, and how to think about community and system integration in the process.