Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is one of the most powerful solutions to address homelessness and housing insecurity. NPH offers member-informed resources to advance supportive housing solutions and help PSH properties thrive.

Coordinated Entry Systems

Coordinated Entry (CE) is one of California’s most important tools for connecting people experiencing homelessness to supportive housing: the county-managed system that assesses, prioritizes, and matches people to available homes. NPH is committed to helping CE work as well as possible, so that the most vulnerable people are housed quickly and supportive housing units are filled with residents whose needs the property can meet.

NPH’s PSH Working Group has produced two connected resources on strengthening CE, one focused on local practice and one on the role of the State.

Coordinated Entry Systems: Best Practice Recommendations

A practitioner-informed guide to what’s working across California’s counties. Drawing on presentations from six county CE systems, a survey of 28 Working Group members, and a statewide roadshow of more than 15 stakeholder conversations, this brief organizes high-consensus best practices across four challenge areas: communication and data-sharing, referrals, services matching and delivery, and system design. It includes concrete county examples and the level of member consensus behind each recommendation.

Strengthening Coordinated Entry in California: A Strategic Framework for State Leadership

Co-authored with Enterprise Community Partners, this framework builds on the local work in Los Angeles and the Bay Area to show how the State can help Coordinated Entry succeed statewide. It lays out five recommendations for state action, from uplifting proven best practices to aligning eligibility documentation, easing regulatory constraints on referrals, and improving data quality, along with four near-term implementation priorities. It reflects shared alignment among CoCs, housing providers, and service partners across both regions.

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See Best Practices
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See the Framework

Permanent Supportive Housing Compendium

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.

Download the Report
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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:

Staffing Recommendations

Safety and Crisis Response Continuum

Housing First Implementation Best Practices

Third-Party Services MOU

PSH Compendium Training

Our PSH Compendium Training provided an overview of new resources designed to strengthen our PSH community programs and services, and policy recommendations that can position regulating governing bodies and lawmakers with the best information and data to help defend proven solutions. Watch the full training below: