News and Events
Crescent Square receives ULI Vision Award
December 7, 2016Our newest community, Crescent Square, in Virginia Beach, received the Innovative Deal of the Year award from Urban Land Institute Virginia (ULI Virginia). ULI Virginia announced the award at its 2016 Vision Awards ceremony on December 1, 2016, in Glen Allen, VA. The program celebrates projects that advance the ULI Virginia’s mission to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.
We completed construction in April 2016. Today, Crescent Square is home to 80 formerly homeless and low-income individuals from the South Hampton Roads region. “It’s exciting to be recognized for a project that we are so proud of and one that helps so many people,” said Julie Anderson, VSH’s Senior Housing Development Officer.
Crescent Square is among a prestigious group of award recipients that include Virginia Capital Trail for Best Overall and Best Community Impact, Quirk Hotel for Best Renovation or Adaptive Reuse, and another Virginia Beach development, 25th Street, for Mixed Use Development for Best Public / Private Partnership.
Crescent Square is VSH’s fifth development in South Hampton Roads and the second one in Virginia Beach. It’s also our first mixed-income community in Hampton Roads. The building is EarthCraft Virginia certified for energy and resource efficiency and includes photovoltaic solar panels to reduce the building’s energy load and a solar thermal hot water system to provide hot water to the building. All appliances and windows are Energy Star rated, and all water fixtures are low flow.
“Crescent Square represents a tremendous collaboration with public and private partners who are vested in meeting the region’s demand for supportive and affordable housing,” said Allison Bogdanović, executive director of VSH. “Local officials recognize that supportive housing is a proven and cost-effective model that works, as evidenced by the fact that 97% of our clients do not return to homelessness.”
Read full article via VSHResults are in: Wards Corner 10K Race – December 3, 2016
December 6, 2016See the results to the Wards Corner 10K here. The inaugural race, which benefit Virginia Supportive Housing, was rescheduled from October 8 to December 3, 2016. The race is a celebration of the season in Norfolk with a great run/walk through the scenic Wards Corner, Talbot Hall and Riverpoint neighborhoods.
Read full article via VSHWards Corner 10K Race – Rescheduled to December 3, 2016
September 7, 2016Due to Hurricane Matthew, the inaugural Ward’s Corner 10K, benefitting Virginia Supportive Housing, has been rescheduled from October 8 to December 3, 2016. The race is a celebration of the season in Norfolk with a great run/walk through the scenic Wards Corner, Talbot Hall and Riverpoint neighborhoods. Please consider joining us as a runner, volunteer or sponsor. Sign up today! For more information contact 757-644-3036 or [email protected]
Read full article via VSH
Governor McAuliffe Announces decrease in overall homelessness
August 25, 2016
On July 20, 2016, Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that overall homelessness in Virginia declined 10.5 percent in 2016 versus 2015. VSH has played a significant role in this achievement. Our results—more than 97% of those we serve do not return to homelessness—demonstrate that together, we are making homelessness history.
VSH Receives National Grant to Leverage “Pay for Success” Social Innovation Funding
April 23, 2016VSH to Gain Expertise in Public-Private Partnership Model to Explore Funding Services for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness and to Save Public Dollars
April 18, 2016 (Richmond, Va.)—Virginia Supportive Housing (VSH) received a competitive grant from CSH to study the feasibility of using an innovative funding method, Pay for Success, to serve vulnerable individuals who have histories of homelessness and high levels of need. The Richmond-based non-profit organization is one of four grant recipients nationwide.
Pay for Success financing and contracting is a promising model for governments to partner with the private sector to fund evidence-based solutions. It leverages philanthropic and private dollars to fund services up front, and governments or other entities provide reimbursements to the funders after initiatives generate verified results. This strategy has gained strong bi-partisan support in Congress for its ability to increase return on taxpayer dollars while improving the quality of services provided in communities.
“Virginia Supportive Housing has proven that providing affordable housing and supportive services to individuals who experience chronic homelessness is more cost-effective than having them consume a wide array of public services while they are experiencing homelessness,” said Allison Bogdanovic, executive director of Virginia Supportive Housing.
In fact, one individual experiencing homelessness can cost a community $40,000 a year or more by consuming public services that are not delivered in a coordinated manner, whereas supportive housing costs about $15,000.
VSH’s delivery of supportive housing is proven to be very effective: 95% of those it serves do not return to homelessness.
“Pay for Success can boost our efforts to scale these evidence-based practices through collaborations between public, private and nonprofit sectors,” added Bogdanovic. “The financial and technical support from the grant will help develop a more outcomes-focused model to pay for the services that we provide in the Richmond area while saving public dollars,” she added.
Specific Focus on Recidivism
In Richmond, a small group of individuals plays a significant role in the escalating costs for correctional services and other emergency systems. These frequent users have complex needs and ricochet between incarceration, hospitalization, detoxification services and homelessness.
VSH is currently serving individuals who are being released from the Richmond Justice Center, helping them to secure housing and providing supportive services in an effort to reduce recidivism. The grant will help to explore an expansion of serving a targeted population of individuals who have had contact with jails and hospitals more than four times over five years with at least one stay in a jail or hospital in the last year.
VSH and its partners will have up to 18 months to develop and determine the feasibility of a Pay for Success model that would enable it to scale and fund services that help to reduce recidivism and hospital usage, thus reducing public costs.
VSH already has proven cost-savings to health systems in the Richmond area, especially among individuals experiencing homelessness who were “frequent utilizers” of emergency rooms and inpatient hospital services before VSH housed and provided service to them. Data from 2013 of “frequent utilizers” served by VSH and VCU Health for 12 months while homeless followed by 12 months in supportive housing shows that emergency room visits decreased by 75 percent, and inpatient visits decreased by 52 percent.
Collaborative partners examining the feasibility of Pay for Success with VSH include Homeward, the Richmond Justice Center, Richmond FUSE Initiative, Greater Richmond Continuum of Care, the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Virginia Pay for Success Lab of the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, VCU Health and Bon Secours Richmond Health System.
The competitive grant, valued at $100,000 in services and resources, includes technical expertise from the Center for Health Care Strategies, which will provide expertise in Medicaid and other public financing sources for serving vulnerable populations, and Third Sector Capital Partners, which will offer guidance on building financial modeling capacity and designing and structuring procurement processes.
A portion of the funding awarded by CSH is from the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund.
About Virginia Supportive Housing
VSH is Virginia’s first and leading supportive housing agency, serving more than 1,500 individuals annually in Richmond, Hampton Roads and Charlottesville. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Richmond, the agency developed and manages 543 units of supportive housing in 16 multi-family properties. VSH also partners with other landlords and provides mobile case management to residents living in those apartments. The non-profit organization administers the largest Supportive Services for Veteran Families program in Virginia, playing a key role in preventing and ending veteran homelessness.
With its strong record of success – 95% of clients not returning to homelessness – VSH has helped communities save millions of dollars in medical services, shelters and feeding programs, judicial services and other public resources.
Read full press release