Core Elements of a Strategy to Braid Funding

On the 4/18 HSPA group session, we offered a framework with the core elements that strategies to braid funding (see below) tend to have. In this discussion board, we're seeking state HSPA team members' input about this list. What resonates? What changes do you recommend? How can we make this useful to states? 

Core Elements of a Strategy to Braid Funding

A braiding strategy has:

  • A shared purpose/goal along with identification of the housing, tenancy services, and supportive services that individuals need for that goal. (For example, purpose is transition to the community from an institution, shelter, or unsheltered homelessness; types of assistance that individuals tend to need and want for a transition: housing, rental assistance, wraparound, assistive technology, transportation, etc. )

  • Funding sources for those housing, tenancy services, and supportive services . (Some funding goes to program(s) and others stay with the individual .)

  • Organizations that deliver the housing, tenancy services, and supportive services 

  • Apparatus(es)/infrastructure to support braiding operations across organizations and systems (e.g., billing, data, provider capacity, communications) 

  • Alignment of program and funding requirements, as possible and needed 

7 replies

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    • HOM, Inc.
    • Michael_Shore
    • 11 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I think it would be helpful to more clearly distinguish between tenancy services and supportive services. What activities make up tenancy services?  Is that the housing program administration activities to determine eligibility, calculate subsidies, inspections, and other housing assistance tasks?  Or is it more specifically supporting households in maintaining tenancy? 

      • Gordon_M_Calkins
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

       

      An interesting distinction that I hadn't considered before.  A good question!

      I've always thought of "tenancy services" not as establishing and sustaining eligibility activities, but instead things like landlord / tenant disagreement mitigation.   I've thought of that as a subset of supportive services which, of course, also includes things like behavioral health supports, connections to mainstream resources, weekly home visits, etc...

      I actually hadn’t really thought of eligibility determination, subsidy calculation, inspections, annual recertifications, etc as being part of supportive services, so there’s something to be said about the way you seem to have framed the question.

      It may be that I’ve backed into the way that I think of it because in Massachusetts, those activities are often done by entirely different entities.  Subsidy payment and inspections, etc.  are conducted by a regional administering agency under contract with the state housing agency, or by a local housing agency, and “supportive services” are provided by entirely different entities – most often nonprofits.

      • Michael_Shore
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

       We’re seeing it the same way. I think it’s a question of what the assumption is around braided funding - is the housing subsidy program already accounted for, which will include the housing program administration activities? If a system is creating a new housing benefit, we just need to make sure these activities are accounted for in addition to the subsidy.

      • Gordon_M_Calkins
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Yes!  This is the very thing we’re most hoping to get from all of this.  Subsidies are not all the same.  CoC assistance is wildly different (and likely comes with way more flexibility in what can be paid for) than a more standard HCV.  The trick is to understand all of that, map out those differences and then have a plan for how to fill the gaps for each specific person being housed.

      • Megan_Akens
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I agree and I also think its important to distinguish who is eligible for what supportive services via a matrix or a crosswalk to ensure anything that a person is eligible for is being explored. This also would help get services to those with the most need.  

    • USAging
    • Molly_French
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Great discussion! "Supportive services" can also include home and community-based services that Medicaid, the Rehab Act, Older Americans Act and other funding streams support.  

    Supportive services help individuals with everyday activities and help make it possible for many people with disabilities and older adults to live stably and independently in their chosen housing environments and participate in their communities. Examples include:

    ·       Assistive technology

    ·       Benefits enrollment support

    ·       Caregiver support programs

    ·       Education and advocacy

    ·       Employment supports

    ·       Environmental and home modifications

    ·       Eviction prevention support

    ·       Evidence-based and chronic disease self-management programs (e.g., falls prevention, diabetes, dementia)

    ·       Friendly visits

    ·       Functional assessments

    ·       Health insurance and benefits counseling

    ·       Homemaker and chore services

    ·       Independent living skills training

    ·       Information, referral, and assistance

    ·       Legal services

    ·       Nutrition services, including home-delivered and medically tailored meals

    ·       Peer supports

    ·       Personal care

    ·       Personal emergency response systems

    ·       Respite

    ·       Transition services

    ·       Translator and interpreter services

    ·       Transportation

    ·       Trauma-informed services

    ·       Wellness programs

    • California Department of Rehabilitation
    • Ana_Acton
    • 2 days ago
    • Reported - view

    The braiding strategies seem to capture the main elements but should we call out coordination and collaboration across programs? After reading the strategies and Molly's comments, it occurs to me that in-order to braid funding effectively, we need to have a No Wrong Door (NWD) type of system that bridges and coordinates between aging and disability networks, housing providers, homeless response systems, and managed care. This allow for assessment of needs across programs, identification of person-centered goals and needs, streamlined access to supports for securing and maintaining housing, coordination to avoid duplication, and leveraging resources and funding to meet individual needs (managed care, Medicaid waivers, AT Act, Rehab Act, Older Americans Act, HUD, homeless response funding, etc.) 

    Here is a description for braiding funding that my department put together a couple of years ago from ACL guidance:

    Braiding multiple funding streams is a process for using multiple funding sources to support the total costs of a common goal (for example, to expand access to institutional transition and diversion or LTSS). When funds are braided, two or more funding sources are coordinated to support the total cost of a service. Revenues are allocated and expenditures tracked by different categories of funding sources. Each individual funding stream maintains its specific program identity, meaning that funds from each specific funding source is tracked separately.

    This helps to ensure there is no duplicate funding. Braiding may include: Identifying funding streams. Identifying any local, state or federal funding streams that support goals and outcomes. Identify gaps between existing funding streams; Identifying eligible populations and compare requirements. Identifying individuals who need services and their eligible for services funded through different funding streams; Building a system to collaborate and coordinate. Develop methods to coordinate and collaborate with services and programs that can support the individual's goals. This might include a method to share confidential consumer information to determine eligibility, data sharing, billing, etc. 

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