Permanent Supportive Housing Working Group Compendium: Research, Resources, and Recommendations

Permanent Supportive Housing is California’s most effective response to homelessness, combining affordable housing with supportive services to help people with complex needs stay housed. Since 2020, NPH’s PSH Working Group has been bringing together developers and operators to address shared challenges, pool data, and develop practitioner-informed solutions, all while staying true to an evidence-based Housing First approach.

We’re proud to share what this innovative group has accomplished to date in our new Permanent Supportive Housing Working Group Compendium: Research, Resources, and Recommendations, a toolkit for the field drawing on the collective experience of NPH members who develop, own, and operate over 30,000 supportive homes.

The Compendium includes:

• Key findings from the first-of-its-kind cost study on the true cost of operating supportive housing, conducted in partnership with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley
• Peer-informed best practices for operators, including staffing recommendations, crisis response frameworks, Housing First implementation guidance, and template MOUs
• Breakthrough policy wins informed by practitioner data, including more than doubling HCD’s supportive services funding caps
• A forward-looking policy agenda with recommendations for future advocacy at each level of government

Supplemental Materials for the PSH Compendium:

• Coordinated Entry Systems
  • Best Practices
• Staffing Recommendations
  • Resident Services Staff Ratios
  • Property Management Staff Ratios
  • Core Site Staff Training
  • Outcomes
  • Target Population Mix Considerations 
• Safety and Crisis Response Continuum
  • Safety and Crisis Response Framework
  • Preparedness Plan Quick Reference Guide
• Housing First Implementation Best Practices
  • Violence
  • Noise
  • Hoarding and Cluttering
  • Verbal De-Escalation 
• Third-Party Services MOU
  • Third Party Services MOU Template