Keeping Families Together

Grant to a New Jersey IHE or nonprofit to provide subsidized housing and supportive services to Jersey City families in danger of homelessness who are involved in open child welfare cases. December 14 is the deadline for questions. Grantee will provide housing, furniture, and initial utility assistance as well as case management services intended to keep families together.

Specifically, DCF will provide up to $143,608 for housing subsides, development and implementation of case management and supportive housing services, and client assistance to furnish and lease up housing units for the targeted population. One award will be granted to serve families from Hudson County with open child welfare cases, and these funds are expected to serve 5 families at one time.

One funding award will be granted for the purpose of developing and implementing a Keeping Families Together supportive housing program to serve families in Jersey City. The awardee will blend subsidized housing with services for CP&P-involved families. This request for proposals requires the development of innovative supportive housing services including case management and other services based on family preservation principles with the goal of supporting family reunification and preventing family separation and homelessness, while promoting recovery and positive family functioning, and self-sufficiency. Evidence-informed and trauma-informed services must be integral components of the service model.

Successful respondents to this RFP will develop programs that reflect values and practices consistent with the Housing First model and that demonstrate a holistic approach to supporting individuals in their recovery and well-being.

Housing First principles include the following:

- Consumer-driven and client-centered, by establishing fully collaborative partnerships with the housing consumer that encourage growth towards independence and recovery by both recognizing consumer strengths and resources, on the one hand, and addressing jointly identified consumer needs and priorities, on the other.

- Flexible in response to individual service preferences, by providing a mix of assistance, support services and on-call crisis response in the family’s home 24 hours a day and 7 days per week as needed, as well as coordinating the timing of in-home service delivery with the hours of operation of other service programs outside the home.

- Team-based, by recruiting and retaining team members comprised of both strong peer role models and specialists experienced in providing motivational counseling, vocational rehabilitation, education, and housing counseling to persons with substance abuse, including those with co-occurring mental health disorders.

- Culturally Competent, the agency staff will reflect the populations whom they will be serving and will provide services that are respectful of the culture, ethnicity, and language(s) of the families being served.

- Recovery-oriented, integrating services that encourage support and sustain client-driven recovery by developing the client’s awareness of referral resources for any needed services.