The department embraces a "Supported Housing" approach to providing housing options for adults with severe mental illness. Supported Housing involves the linking of affordable, permanent, community-based housing options with flexible services and supports. It also assumes that individuals have preferences and should be involved in choosing where and with whom they live.

Federal block grant funds from the Center for Mental Health Services have been critically important to the development of the department's housing initiative, which focuses on affordable housing development while promoting linkages with housing related supports such as skills training, assistance in securing subsidies, and housing search activities.

The department's strategies to increase the percentage of consumers who live independently include:

• Promoting rental assistance program development.
• Providing training events on supportive housing and the subsidized housing delivery system.
• Participating in HB 843 and Olmstead planning activities.
• Providing technical assistance to local nonprofit housing developers through referral to Kentucky Housing Corporation's Supportive Housing Specialist.

Block grant funds support the following local initiatives in the areas of housing development, supported housing and residential support.

• Regional housing developers are responsible for generating new housing options at the local level as well as serving as the focal point for training and advocacy. They have been particularly successful in accessing new rental assistance funding. See the map below for regions with housing developers.
• Supported housing programs focus on working with individuals to choose, get and keep normal housing in the community. These programs typically use a case management model bolstered by a flexible housing assistance fund. Local community mental health centers also own and manage residential support projects, which typically hire on-site staff in permanent housing settings.

Additionally, the department collaborates with the Kentucky Housing Corporation, the Housing and Homeless Coalition of Kentucky, the Council on Homeless Policy, and other key state housing organizations to support the development of additional supportive housing units in Kentucky. The department also funds jointly with the Kentucky Housing Corporation a full-time Supportive Housing Specialist. All these initiatives have spurred the development of new housing projects at the local level.

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