Your Partners for Transformative Change
Housing Solutions
Access to safe, stable, affordable housing is most limited for people who face multiple barriers and experience challenges such as substance use, mental illness, trauma, or incarceration. We are committed to ensuring access to safe, stable, affordable housing and services for all.
C4 staff lead national, state, regional, and local projects to identify and promote evidence-based and promising practices. We provide training, technical assistance, and consultation to improve housing and homeless services.
Improve Housing and Homeless Services
Throughout our work to advance best practices and transform systems, we focus on ensuring access for all people. For example, C4 research documented what housing and homeless service providers have long known: tools used to assess housing needs may unfairly limit access for some populations. We work closely with partners to deepen understanding of local and systemic barriers to housing stability, design and re-design coordinated entry systems, and implement strategies to drive change.
Our team includes people who have experienced homelessness, mental illness, substance use, and trauma as well as service providers and trainers. Our work is grounded in our experience providing outreach, shelter, housing, mental health and substance use services, health care, and Continuum of Care planning and implementation.
We Can Help You ↓
- Engage with and respond more effectively to individuals, families, and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness
- Develop and implement strategic plans to end homelessness and improve housing and homeless services
- Examine data and redesign programs, policies, procedures, and systems to reduce homelessness
- Provide safe, culturally responsive services for people experiencing homelessness
- Design and re-design coordinated entry systems
- Assess and develop housing continuums that incorporate varied housing models and prioritize choice
- Design and implement prevention and diversion processes
- Integrate peer support and other recovery-oriented services and supports
- Provide evidence-based and promising practices that are integrated with housing including:
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Motivational Interviewing
- Housing First
- Supportive Housing/Permanent Supportive Housing
- Recovery Housing
- Outreach and Engagement
- Case Management
- Tenancy Support
- Master (Global) Leasing
- Shared Housing
"The methodology used by the C4 Innovations team was comprehensive and sensitive to our areas of interest. I appreciate the thorough review of findings. This information will help us support best practices and inform strategic planning moving forward."
Community Partner
"This training session gave me a better insight into how I can motivate my clients to change within themselves. Not only did this training provide us concrete strategies, it presented compelling insights to consider. I can't thank the presenters enough for their candor and the real-life usefulness of the information presented."
Training Participant
Transform Your Services
Partner with C4 to develop programs and solutions that support safe, stable, and affordable housing.
Examples of Our Work
Harm Reduction in Rural Areas
Harm Reduction in Rural Areas: A Workbook for Homeless Response System Staff was designed to help with the implementation of harm reduction strategies, including Housing First principles. It addresses the unique challenges communities may face if they have not yet adopted harm reduction methods or have struggled to acquire the capacity and knowledge to do so. It also focuses on practical implementation of these principles to encourage readers to think about how they can best adopt harm reduction and Housing First strategies in their communities.
Statewide Environmental Scans on Recovery Housing and Behavioral Health Housing
C4 has conducted multiple statewide environmental scans that have helped Ohio stakeholders to understand, assess, and identify strategic recommendations. This includes two consecutive environmental scans focused on recovery housing capacity and quality in 2013 and 2021. The first scan helped to build support for funding and expanding recovery housing infrastructure across the state, and the second scan captured this progress. C4 also supported state partners in conducting a scan that explored a range of supportive housing models for people with mental health and/or substance use challenges. This scan resulted in a vision for an integrated, accessible continuum of behavioral health housing options. Partners have included the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Services Providers, Ohio Recovery Housing, and the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (formerly the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services). Read the 2013 and 2021 recovery housing scans.
Master (Global) Leasing
Master leasing, sometimes referred to as global leasing, is typically made available through a partnership between a property owner and a master leasing provider, such as a non-profit organization or government agency. This approach offers an alternative to traditional rental agreements where the master leasing provider holds the leases on a building or set of rooms and subleases them to tenants/subtenants. In partnership with Washington State Health Care Authority, C4 staff developed a range of resources on global leasing, including a literature review, toolkit, videos, and podcast recordings. Access these resources.
Updating Coordinated Access Process and Tools
C4 has been partnering with the Multnomah County Homeless Services Department since 2021 to ensure an equitable re-design of the coordinated access tool and process. Our role is to center the voices of Multnomah County homeless service providers and people from diverse backgrounds with lived and living experience of homelessness and housing instability. We have taken a two-phased approach. First, we created an ongoing oversight committee of homeless service providers; facilitated listening sessions with providers and county staff; and conducted one-on-one interviews with people with lived and living experience. Second, we launched the Housing Connection Collaborative, a group of 12 people with lived and living experience of homelessness and housing instability in a range of current housing situations in Multnomah County. The Collaborative is reviewing and helping to update the Coordinated Access tool to make it more trauma-informed and equitable for all people.
Learn More
- People with History of Homelessness Encouraged to Apply-video featuring C4 expert Steven Samra (4:53 minutes)
- Maintaining a Homelike Environment in Recovery Housing Programs Operated by Treatment Centers-prepared by Ohio Recovery Housing with support from C4 staff (PDF)
- Coordinated Entry Systems Racial Equity Analysis of Assessment Data (PDF)
- Whole-Person Care for People Experiencing Homelessness and Opioid Use Disorder-video recording of webinar sponsored by the Homeless & Housing Resource Center featuring C4’s Ken Kraybill and Steven Samra (88:54 minutes)