Supportive Housing

Supportive Housing is permanent housing affordable to the people served and provides access to an array of services designed to foster housing stability and improve health and quality of life.

Minnesota Housing offers various capital and rental assistance funding and incentives to create supportive housing units for the highest need households experiencing homelessness and for persons with disabilities.

Information about the application process and resources for capital funding in the annual Multifamily Consolidated RFP is available on the Request for Proposals page. For more specific information about supportive housing requirements, refer to the Supportive Housing Information and Resources, chapters three, four and 12.

Minnesota Housing has funded more than 7,500 supportive housing units in over 400 properties located across the state in the last 20 years. A third of these properties are primarily supportive housing properties.

Guidance and Best Practices

Refer to Supportive Housing Information and Resources for guidance on:

Planning Supportive Housing units
The Multifamily Consolidated RFP application process
Post selection due diligence
Occupancy, reporting and compliance
Industry best practices
Funding resources for services and rental assistance
Definitions
Other resources

Supportive Housing Eligibility

Supportive Housing units that received points in the Multifamily Consolidated RFP to serve people experiencing homelessness require HPH or LTH eligibility, depending on the year selected for funding. Refer to Chapter 2 in Supportive Housing Information and Resources for more information.

High-Priority Homeless (HPH): Individuals or families prioritized for Supportive Housing (PSH) through the Coordinated Entry (CE) system.
Long-Term Homeless (LTH): Individuals or families who lack a permanent place to live continuously for a year or more at least four times in the past three years.

Beginning in 2025, there is a new category for “Other Homeless Units” for projects with HPH units to receive additional points to commit more units to households experiencing homelessness. This category aligns with the eligibility previously required for Housing Infrastructure funding for supportive housing prior to 2024.

Other Homeless: Includes (i) individuals leaving institutions that do not have a permanent residence or (ii) other homeless populations not referred by the Coordinated Entry System.

Supportive Housing units that receive points to serve people with disabilities (PWD) must serve a person with a disability (any person in the household). Eligibility is defined and documented on the Self-Certification form. Refer to Chapter 12 in Supportive Housing Information and Resources for more information.

Long-Term Homelessness (LTH) Eligibility Materials

Long-Term Homelessness Eligibility Form
Homeless Episode Verification Form
LTH Eligibility Training Module
Refer to Supportive Housing Information and Resources Appendix C for LTH Eligibility Frequently Asked Questions

High Priority Homeless (HPH) Materials

Post-Selection Materials

In order to close on the financing, applicants selected through the Multifamily Consolidated RFP are required to complete due diligence documentation during the post-selection underwriting process.

Learn more about required documentation for properties with supportive housing units.

Supportive Housing Occupancy

Owners and property managers are advised to recognize that supportive housing units are intended to follow Housing First principles with low-barrier and inclusive access for households experiencing homelessness and persons with disabilities. Learn more here.

Reporting and Compliance Requirements

Minnesota Housing monitors all properties for compliance with funding requirements and legal agreements.

Chapter 11 in Supportive Housing Information and Resources covers the asset management and compliance requirements for developments with Supportive Housing units, including the reporting requirements. More information on monitoring, compliance, reporting and forms can be found on these webpages:

Oversight and Support for Property Managers
Documents, Forms and Resources
A Request for Action (RFA) must be submitted for changes in ownership, management agent, service provider and loan servicing changes.

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Reporting Requirement

Minnesota Housing requires owners of occupied properties with Supportive housing units restricted to serve Long-term Homeless (LTH) or High Priority Homeless (HPH) households to enter tenant data into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and submit reports as instructed.

Requirements are outlined on the HMIS Memo and Contact Form for LTH and HPH Units.
Find data collection forms on Minnesota's HMIS website.

Additional Resources

Supportive Housing Alliance

The Supportive Housing Alliance, formerly known as the Stewardship Council, is an interagency working group whose purpose is to directly impact the creation, preservation, and stabilization of supportive housing as a key component in Minnesota’s work to prevent and end homelessness. The Supportive Housing Alliance is committed to increasing equitable access and increasing the development of supportive housing. The Supportive Housing Alliance’s scope includes supportive housing that is scattered-site or site-based, targeted to those experiencing homelessness and persons with disabilities.

The Supportive Housing Alliance has worked with community partners to develop supportive housing standards. Read more about the current work to implement the standards.

Supportive Housing Engagement Sessions with Providers

Occupancy and Monitoring Session - October 2021

PowerPoint presentation
Recorded session

Office Hours: Supportive housing staff host regular engagement sessions with supportive housing providers to cover topics of interest and answer questions. Meeting invitations are sent on our agency eNews. Be sure to subscribe to the Supportive Housing topic to receive the eNews.

Questions about supportive housing?

Contact supportive.housing@state.mn.us

Department of Human Services (DHS) Resources

Housing Support

Housing Support is a state funded income supplement program that pays for room and board for low-income adults with disabilities. There is also a service rate for eligible households in certain settings. For more information, refer to the DHS Housing Support webpage or contact your county's human service Housing Support program manager.

DHS Contacts

Webinar Overview of Housing Support, Minnesota Supplemental Aid (MSA) and Housing Stabilization Services

In cooperation with Minnesota Housing, DHS held a webinar session on programs used within supportive housing, including Housing Support, MSA and MSA Housing Assistance, and Housing Stabilization Services with particular emphasis on changes to these programs that occurred in 2020 and 2021. Watch the recorded session (02:03:15) or download the presentation.

Housing Support: How it Works in Operation Training Session on June 8, 2022

Minnesota Housing hosted this session focused on how Housing Support works in actual practice for developments with supportive housing units. The session covered the following topics:

DHS staff provided an overview of the Housing Support Program.
Two service providers reviewed their role in providing Housing Support.
A property manager reviewed their role including how to use the Minnesota Housing Income and Rent Calculation Form for Housing Support to determine a tenant's subsidy and income to use for reporting and compliance.

Watch the recorded session (1:49:38) or download the presentation for more information.

DHS overview of program (minute 02:22)
Service provider role (minute 15:30)
Questions (minute 44:00)
Property management role and completing the rent and income calculation form (minute 54:30)
Questions (minute 1:10:00)

Other materials from the session include:

Questions and Answers
Example forms used by some Housing Support Providers:

Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services

Housing Stabilization Services is a new Minnesota Medical Assistance benefit to help people with disabilities, including mental illness and substance use disorder, and seniors find and keep housing.

Learn more about the new benefit and how to become an enrolled service provider on the DHS Housing Stabilization Services webpage.

Recorded Webinar for Housing Providers

The Training is a high-level overview of the services for housing providers and specific information that all housing providers need to know to help tenants access services.

Watch the recorded training (01:36:03)

Technical Assistance is also available from the Housing Stabilization Services Technical Assistance Team, a partnership between CSH, Ei Consultants, MESH and North Star Policy Consulting. Their goal is to support agencies and communities across the state in using Medicaid for housing supports in order to maximize resources needed to end homelessness.

For more information, visit https://mesh-mn.org/hssta

Reports

2022 Supportive Housing Annual Report

Minnesota Housing provides capital funding for site-based supportive housing units and Housing Trust Fund (HTF) tenant-based rental assistance for high-priority homeless households. All providers are required to collect tenant data in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). In addition, all site-based supportive housing service providers and management agents also complete an annual supportive housing survey.

The Annual Report summarizes key highlights from this data for the period from October 1, 2021 - September 30, 2022.

Supportive Housing Evaluation Results and Action Plan

Minnesota Housing worked with the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) and Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) to conduct an extensive evaluation of the supportive housing portfolio and to examine best practices for supportive housing at several housing finance agencies around the country.

The evaluation and best practices reports were completed in 2020 and are rich with information. They deliver the evaluation results and include recommendations for Minnesota Housing to further strengthen its portfolio and practices. Minnesota Housing staff have used these recommendations to develop an action plan for supportive housing development, oversight and monitoring.

Minnesota Housing held a webinar to discuss the results. Watch the recorded webinar (1:30:00 - start watching at the three minute mark) or download the presentation to learn more.